OEM vs Retail...whats the difference?

[BChico]

I am looking at a ibm deskstar 45gb harddrive for 148 OEM, and the same drive for 225 Retail, is there anything i should know about before i buy it, arent they exactly the same drive, but oem without the oretty box?

 

[Vinny N]

Yep. The only thing I would worry about is warranty, make sure the "OEM" drive has just as long a warranty. With the retail drive, it's got an undisputed 3 year warranty. Depending on how reliable the source is, "OEM" drive could be a real "OEM" pull that has 0 warranty (IBM can be a pain to deal with). Or "OEM" could be a true bare drive with 3 year warranty.

 

[BChico]

Thanks for telling me i will check!

 

[rbV5]

You should be able to beat that price on the retail model, oems generally are the bare drive only, no cable, mounting hardware, otherwise the same drive. I did see somewhere that some of the oems have no cache? but not sure. You should be able to check the part number to the IBM site and check the specs.

 

[LXi]

Retail - Full package, bundle, IBM 3 year warranty.
OEM - Little package, no bundle, OEM warranty(IBM is NOT responsible).
Bare drives - Little package, no bundle, IBM 3 year warranty.

 

[Ulysses]

Well, here's the real inside baseball, Chico.

There are drives, and then again there are drives.

I mean, like, dude, there are Retail Drives (with the HDD and all the fixin's plus a 3-year warranty from IBM), and there are Bare Drives (with no fixin's, but with a 3-year warranty from Big Blue), and there are true OEM drives (with no fixin's and no warranty from the manufacturer of the drive). Pretty heavy, huh.

OK, now listen up - the real bummer is that some drives that look like they are OEM Drives are, whoa, bro, really Bare Drives (as I have defined them, and so have the 3-yr. warranty), while others are real OEM drives with no direct warranty from IBM.

So just be sure you are buying your drive from an authorized IBM retailer (like www.buy.com, e.g.) and you'll get the 3-yr. warranty from IBM, and of course have no worries, whether it's a Retail Drive or what most consider an OEM Drive.


And, hey, I really believe this - having bought a Retail Drive and a Bare Drive (AKA OEM Drive) at www.buy.com a while back, and havig subsequently verified that both have a 3-yr. warranty from IBM.

You dig?