Reality check -- for me it is very hard to justify the price tag of the memory shown today, I mean it's trivial really.

See, synthetically we can show you the massive bandwidth the kit offers. It's exactly there where we can show you the scrumptious timings and effect of low latency high-frequency memory. In the real-world gaming experience things are however much different. See, Core i7 and X58 doesn't really have any negatives in it's baseline performance already. With default components it already is really -- really good. On top of that, we assembled our primary test-pc in such a manner, that we would not have any bottlenecks for a long long time.

So yeah, it is really hard to justify a purchase like this from the price point of view. Looking at it from the other side, if you are a performance freak like I am, yeah then there's currently very little out there that is better.

What OCZ did here with it's blade memory is quite amazing. At 67 USD per gigabyte please look at it as an investment. You complement your PC build with quality high performing components. In the end, everything accumulated (processor, tweaks, PSU, mobo, GPUs) will be the actual end result and show the real benefit. Remember, memory is only one segment of the entire PC eco-system.

And sure, though this kit is less expensive than the competition, fact remains that Blade memory is not cheap. This also never has been any different in the enthusiast high-end hardware really. It's the difference between a Alpha Romeo and a Maserati. Both go fast and are great cars, yet you want that Maserati as you go for luxury and sporst. But sure, value wise a nice 1600 MHz kit would be a way more logical choice, heck even the Blade 2000 MHz CAS9 version is nearly a twofold cheaper.

Price aside, there's no need to make a too long conclusion out of it as it's one of the best kits your money can get you. I mean, 2000 MHz at CAS 7 perfectly stable, the Elpida ICs kick ass. And next to the exceptional performance you'll achieve from these modules they are also really good quality, and aesthtically pleasing. If you can spend a thousand USD on a processor, 400 USD on a Rampage II Extreme motherboard and 800 USD on GPUs, you surely will spend this kind of money on 2000 MHz CAS7 Blade DDR3 memory.

The minute you have it in your hands you just know it's all good, sturdy, heavy .. masculine kit, and covered by a life-time warranty. We can do nothing else other then give it our more difficult to receive 'Top pick' award.

• OCZ3B2000C9LV6GK = 9-9-9-30 Timings
• OCZ3B2000LV6GK = 7-8-7-20 Timings

Last word of advise, be careful ordering the proper kit ! If interested, we spotted it for $367.30 after rebate.  

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