OEM or RETAIL ??? Why ???

[DAMIAN2269]

What is the real physical difference between the two?

I see some people have great luck with OEM chips, why is it so common to
usually stay away from OEM?

The warranty is the only difference I see.

I want a 650e FC , plenty of places to get them cheap , in OEM or Retail,
what do you think?

If anyone can really tell me that knows what the REAL difference is I'd love
to know.

I'm not trying to be cheap , theres hardly any price difference I just want
to know for my own curiosity.

 

[Plester]

warranty. get the retail if you need that peace of mind. i,ve only bought 1 retail chip ever out of about 12 intel chips and they are all still up and running (build friends/neighbors computers). no other difference i know of, allthough people say that retail comes from the sweet spot on the wafer, but that doesn't hold up because if you check overclockers.com database, oems overclock just as well if not better.

 

[Ulysses]

OEM'S are sometimes avoided by overclockers because it is thought that for the manufacturers there is no need to be concerned about overclocking so the chips need only meet minimum specs. A retail chip might have a better chance of overclocking - who knows.

The difference is the warranty, change in fan/heatsink, packaging & price.

If you are going to o'clock then you should really pay more attention to the stepping (i.e., the version of the chip), whether OEM or retail. It is thoupht that, especially if you're getting a slower P3 like a 650, a CPU of the latest stepping will be more overclockable than one from an earlier stepping. The latest, greatest P3 stepping is cB0, which is what you want, although a new c00 stepping is expected soon.

The stepping is found by checking the processor's S-Spec (that's the 5-character code beginning with 'SL' printed on the CPU and on the outside of the retail box) before you buy it against the table at:
http://support.intel.com/support/processors/sspec/p3p.htm.

The stepping and OEM/retail question don't matter unless you are overclocking. Not all vendors will want to mess with giving you the S-spec before they ship, of course

Other postings at AT will mention vendors who have cB0 P3's.

 

[Packet]

also, retail SECC2 Coppermines come with an attached heatsink which can be a pain to remove. If your overclocking, most likely you will want a third party heatsink.

 

[denali]

I have read in the past that the retail versions of the chips come from the center of the wafer and that OEM chips come from the edge of the wafer. Some say that you get better electrical properties nearer the center of the wafer but I don't know about this.

I think you should bee more concerned with the stepping and the week than retail vs. OEM. I have OC'd many OEM chips with no problems. If you are not going to use the heatsink that comes with a retail chip why pay for it.

 

[err]

Question:

Are these the same OEM chips that are sent to big computer system manufacturers like Dell, Compaq, HP, or IBM ?

If so, would it be accurate to say OEM chips come from the edge of the wafer ?(quote from denali)

Why would Intel sell OEM chips of lower P3 quality to Dell or others when Dell are their biggest customers?

Just a thought, I think OEM chips are the same with retail except for packaging, fans and price

eRr

 

[bonkers325]

end of story
retail all the way
cause 3 yr warranty

 

[JellyBaby]

Yeah a retail cpu gives you a much better warranty but there's that retail heatsink/fan to remove.

As for OCing, I haven't seen any type OC better than the other...

 

[Jhhnn]

Since you have the slocket adapter, the retail socket 370 flip chip would be my choice, because of the warranty, and because the socket 370 retail HSF is a piece of cake to install or remove, and often works well enough for the jump to 133 fsb, as you already know from your 550e.
Of course, there is the paranoia factor, which also leans toward retail.
with the oem's, it would be tempting and easy to pick thru them,see which ones would post at high fsb, and set them aside as specials, then sell off the rest. It's a little tougher with the retail package.

 

[Ornery]

I'll take retail over bulk anyday for one very good reason that hasn't been mentioned... what do you suppose happens to the chips that don't overclock? It would be much more difficult to break the seal and test a retail chip and return it to the package, without it being obvious.

I was really torn about getting a retail 566 from Buy.com or OEM 533. I went with the 533 because its supposedly in stock. Hope it shows up tomorrow! I'll probably end up kicking myself for not practicing what I preach! :Q

 

[gplracer]

I really do not think there is any difference between OEM and retail except for one fact. There is so much overclocking of cpus that retailers are actually selling pretested overclocked cpus. I think if one buys they a boxed retail the chances of it overclocking are much better than a non boxed OEM. Most of the companies probably go through the OEM cpus and sell the ones that overclock well at a premium to either customers or other companies that want to sell pretested cpus.

 

[DigitalJesus]

the only bad thing about oem is the shipping and packaging!The retail are in those nice pretty boxes all safe and secure and the oems come in a cardboard box in cases of forty! just thrown in there with nothing but a anti static bag to absorb any shock!But ive never had a problem with one yet!

 

[EvilCoconut]

dont the retail come with pretty stickerS??? i emailed amd a while ago for stickers... no response

 

[denali]

err, Here is where I got the information
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=683&p=2

 

[chinman75]

RETAIL ALL THE WAY
every chip is different though, and every chip combination w/ mb
and ram is different too. one thing is for sure though...w/ an oem
chip, you are making your chances slimmer of getting a highly overclockable chip, since the inspection process is not as rigorous

 

[Akkan]

When my parent's got me a P3-500 retail for Christmas, It didn't come with a sticker...

 

[jblondi]

The warranty means nothing when you plan to Overclock. Its actually voided. When you try to send the chip back and its fried from OCing you wont get a new chip. So if planning on OCing I would leave all the "Warranty" talk out of your mind.

 

[SaxOphoneKid]

What is the best way to move the heatsink/fan from a retail chip.

 

[ChrisQuickTA]

I bought an OEM 650 cB0 that did 866 at 1.65v the first day. The system will boot into windows up to 145 FSB but corrupt file errors are f-ing up my game. Like he said if you are O/Cing there is a chance you might get a fried chip replaced, but I didnt want to spend an extra 50 bucks on my chip just to find out that when I fried it I had to buy a new one anyway. I would have DEFINATELY bought retail if I wasnt O/Cing, but I am TRYING to either fry this thing or get it stable above 900..hehe

Chris

 

[Hyper99]

That is why you can tell them that it refused to work
not fried, act like you don't know.
If they are wondering about overclocking, tell them NO,
that you are running at normal speed.
Cheers
This way the warranty will work on ya and you can get a new one
and continue to experiment as many time as you like without
the trouble of them refusing to give you another one.
You just gotta play smart and don't be too truthful
they'll never know and they'll just believe what you say.
SWEET *****
I mean who in the world would run up to them and say
hey I fried these sucker, can you give me a new one.
If I was the dealer, I would say sorry warranty doesn't cover
cpu tampered by user.