Question on Oems

[phillyman36]

Ok other than you dont get a hsf and the packaging what is the difference between oem and retail? Microcenter seems to have oem q9450 so i was going to stop by there after work. I did a search and am getting slightly different answers. Intels website seems to say that warranty on oems is handled by the retailer

http://www.intel.com/support/p...ssors/sb/CS-001533.htm

microcenters website for the oem 9450 says its a 3 year warranty which that what it says for their retail cpus.

What is the difference? Thanks for any info

 

[TheJian]

They're lying or it's a mistake. 3yr for retail ONLY. And yeah, Intel has NOTHING to do with your OEM. You're SOL if you buy one as far as they are concerned. Wait or buy somewhere else for retail! Never buy OEM unless you have NO other option or just don't care about money. I can't even pull that part up on their website. Anyway if it's a 3yr THEY are giving the warranty but they'll correct this if they ever say it. It's a mistake probably.

I'm not saying OEM is any worse as far as the chip goes. Just that for $10 more usually you can have 3yr, abuse the crap out of it and get a new one from Intel if it dies

 

[phillyman36]

Ok thanks sorry here is the link for the oem q9450@microcenter
http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0286543

 

[Foxery]

Yep, it's just a mistake in Microcenter's description. OEM chips mean that Intel intended for someone like Dell, Gateway, Compaq to put it in a pre-built system and be responsible for supporting it / giving it a warranty.

If you don't want a warranty, and buy your own cooler, the chips are otherwise identical.

 

[bryanW1995]

according to tankguys the warranty is 3yrs for retail and 1 yr for oem.

by the way, thejian, if you oc your cpu then your warranty is void. period. don't oc your chip if you can't afford a new one. or, buy an oem, run it at stock for a year, then oc the crap out of it when the warranty has expired. don't oc your cpu if you can't afford to buy a new one when you blow it up.

 

[hnzw rui]

The 1 yr warranty for OEM is probably being covered by tankguys. Newegg only covers it for 30 days.

 

[Ratman6161]

Originally posted by: TheJian
...Wait or buy somewhere else for retail! Never buy OEM unless you have NO other option or just don't care about money. ...I'm not saying OEM is any worse as far as the chip goes. Just that for $10 more usually you can have 3yr, abuse the crap out of it and get a new one from Intel if it dies

Well, you will probably find quite a bit of disagreement there. I've been overclocking since way back when I discovered that my Pentium 166 MMX would run at 200Mhz by chaning one jumper setting. In that time, perhaps I've been lucky, but I have never once fried a CPU. Then again I'm very careful and don't go for insane speeds or voltages.

Also, other than laptops, I have not purchased a new oem built computer since that Pentuim 166 MMX - I have always built them myself (at home that is, not at work) and most of the time used oem CPU's (AMD until I got the Q6600 earlier this week). Since I have never had one die, the warrantee never came into play. The only time I have ever gone retail is the couple of times that it turned out the OEM and retail were about the same price - which you will sometimes see if you follow the pricing for a while.

Third factor is the cooler included with retail CPU's. Those normally go directly from the box to my spare parts bin without ever going on the CPU since I'm going to use an aftermarket cooler anyway.

So, the long and the short of it is that when I bought my Q6600 and the retail was $254 and the OEM was $239 - I went with the OEM without any reservations.

As to the "abuse the crap out of it and get a new one from Intel if it dies", that comes down to your personal value system. When I buy a new CPU for home use, I know I will be voiding the warantee within hours of the chip coming out of the packaging (abusing the crap ot of it as you say). I have to agree with bryanW1995 who said (to paraphrase) that if you can't afford the risk, then don't overclock. If you do overclock, don't blame Intel if something goes wrong. That is why OEM is better for overclockers, if you are like me and believe that honesty is the best policy.

 

[bryanW1995]

well, let's look at it from a dishonest person's standpoint. In your case, the $15 difference was approximately 6 % of the price of cpu and went a long way towards a decent aftermarket cooler. You are much more likely to kill your cpu when you oc, but it's usually a gradual process that happens over years, not a sudden SPLAT. For example, your oc could start out at 3.6 at 1.45v, then drop to 3.5 @ 1.47v, etc etc. It takes a lot to kill a non-defective cpu.

I have read a TON of overclocking posts and even done a little bit here and there myself, and I have NEVER seen somebody blow their cpu without going to insane lengths. By "insane" I mean running a c2d at 1.6+ vcore 24/7 on air or maybe running the cpu at 80c 24/7. Sure, you see some guys at XS doing that or sometimes you seem aigo blow a chip just for the hell of it, but in general you have to go way beyond accepted guidelines to blow up your cpu. Also, on most systems the mobo/ram/etc will fail well before the cpu does. If you have a quality mobo, quality ram, quality hsf, quality case, etc you're less likely to deliberately push them beyond stable limits and thus less likely to kill the cpu.

btw, can anybody verify what intel's warranty is for oem vs retail cpus?

 

[Markfw]

maybe running the cpu at 80c 24/7

I have 2 quads doing that now, both B3's, and X3210 that runs ~80c a lot, and a Q6600 B3 that runs 75-77c a lot. Been 24/7 folding for 9 months or so, no problems....Seriously, after the hundreds I have owned, the only ones that died were Athlon XP's, a 1700, 1800, 2 2400's and a 2600. I even have a Pentium 200 MMX still operational, and a Duron 700 !

But I agree that to kill one of todays CPU's you have to abuse them beyond belief.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Here is what Intel has to say on the Subject Intel Warranty Info Page basicly all it says is contact your OEM as they provide no support at all for end users for OEM chips.

 

[Gillbot]

I have always been told the Retail chips come from the center of the wafer and usually yield the best OC results, the OEM's are from the edges where they don't OC as well. That said though, I've always bought OEM as I have no need for a warranty or the junk cooler they send.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
according to tankguys the warranty is 3yrs for retail and 1 yr for oem.

by the way, thejian, if you oc your cpu then your warranty is void. period. don't oc your chip if you can't afford a new one. or, buy an oem, run it at stock for a year, then oc the crap out of it when the warranty has expired. don't oc your cpu if you can't afford to buy a new one when you blow it up.

You can argue about my morals all you want. I haven't killed a chip from overclocking from Intel (yet) (always have after market or water also...IF it makes you feel better). But it only voids your warranty if you tell them you did it. IF more of us start killing them than they have figured into their business model (yes they do account for this) then they can always CHECK the cpu and figure it out. Trouble is, for the price they can make them for, and the amount of time this "CEHCK" takes we get a free pass most of the time. Those tools are built into the chip for their OWN testing when creating the thing, not really to catch us. Though they can be used as such.

I didn't respond to the thread to discuss my morals. Just the reasoning behind purchasing a 3yr warranty rather than depending on who you buy it from. For that purpose everything I said is valid. Morals or not. PERIOD. If intel wants to stop overclocking LOCK the FSB! The fact is they get lots of free publicity from us all overclocking and they know it. Why did I buy an Intel for my whole family in the last 5 months when I'm an AMD fan? PURELY due to knowing they overclock like crazy. That's free publicity i'm talking about.

The morality question is for the "OFF TOPIC" section. OR would that be Politics/News?

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

maybe running the cpu at 80c 24/7

I have 2 quads doing that now, both B3's, and X3210 that runs ~80c a lot, and a Q6600 B3 that runs 75-77c a lot. Been 24/7 folding for 9 months or so, no problems....Seriously, after the hundreds I have owned, the only ones that died were Athlon XP's, a 1700, 1800, 2 2400's and a 2600. I even have a Pentium 200 MMX still operational, and a Duron 700 !

But I agree that to kill one of todays CPU's you have to abuse them beyond belief.

I think most of the time heat would be your problem well before you volted it to death (which is the largest portion of dead cpus). The cpu has built in heat protectors. If we abuse them they shutdown or lower speed. Volts though, that's another issue What are we all trying to do in here when discussing overclocking? Get the lowest volts So I think they're going to be ok in the long run even with us nuts out there (what like 10% of us overclock? maybe 20?). Yeah, tough to abuse these to death EVen anand said they take an overwhelming amount of abuse (Penryn article).

 

[dasracht]

I was told at microcenter also that the support is now 3 years for oem as well. Even though the oem box for the q9450 says 90 days support, they said that you can go on intel's website and see that it's three years, or call them. I haven't done this though, but I find it odd that my microcenter said the same thing as the op's.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: TheJian

You can argue about my morals all you want. I haven't killed a chip from overclocking from Intel (yet) (always have after market or water also...IF it makes you feel better). But it only voids your warranty if you tell them you did it. IF more of us start killing them than they have figured into their business model (yes they do account for this) then they can always CHECK the cpu and figure it out. Trouble is, for the price they can make them for, and the amount of time this "CEHCK" takes we get a free pass most of the time. Those tools are built into the chip for their OWN testing when creating the thing, not really to catch us. Though they can be used as such.

I didn't respond to the thread to discuss my morals. Just the reasoning behind purchasing a 3yr warranty rather than depending on who you buy it from. For that purpose everything I said is valid. Morals or not. PERIOD. If intel wants to stop overclocking LOCK the FSB! The fact is they get lots of free publicity from us all overclocking and they know it. Why did I buy an Intel for my whole family in the last 5 months when I'm an AMD fan? PURELY due to knowing they overclock like crazy. That's free publicity i'm talking about.

The morality question is for the "OFF TOPIC" section. OR would that be Politics/News?

Actually, morality is indeed relevant to this thread because you are on a public forum advocating fraud. What you do in the privacy of your home is one thing, posting on a public forum is completely different.

OP- If you plan on overclocking, the OEM chips are generally cheaper and perform just as well from my experience.

 

[Old Hippie]

I have always been told the Retail chips come from the center of the wafer and usually yield the best OC results, the OEM's are from the edges where they don't OC as well.

Now there's one I've never heard of.

 

[Tempered81]

i buy all my chips oem, and they all came with the intel HSF

I dont understand why people say they dont...

maybe im just dreaming, newegg reviews say that e8400 doesn't come with a fan. I must have been buying retails...

LOL I feel really smart now.

 

[killster1]

hahaha @ trying to kill your cpu to get a "new one" as everyone else says Overclocking voids the warranty so get the OEM unless there is some great stepping you know the retail will have and you need. i did kill one cpu it was a p4 2.66 i had at like 3.2ghz.. not sure how it died prob way hottttttt for 24/7.. but it just wouldnt post in any mobo's (originally thought i killed the mobo)

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
I have always been told the Retail chips come from the center of the wafer and usually yield the best OC results, the OEM's are from the edges where they don't OC as well. That said though, I've always bought OEM as I have no need for a warranty or the junk cooler they send.

Having worked in an industry that dealt with wafers, I can tell you this has absolutely nothing to do with how well the chip overclocks.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: TheJian

You can argue about my morals all you want. I haven't killed a chip from overclocking from Intel (yet) (always have after market or water also...IF it makes you feel better). But it only voids your warranty if you tell them you did it. IF more of us start killing them than they have figured into their business model (yes they do account for this) then they can always CHECK the cpu and figure it out. Trouble is, for the price they can make them for, and the amount of time this "CEHCK" takes we get a free pass most of the time. Those tools are built into the chip for their OWN testing when creating the thing, not really to catch us. Though they can be used as such.

I didn't respond to the thread to discuss my morals. Just the reasoning behind purchasing a 3yr warranty rather than depending on who you buy it from. For that purpose everything I said is valid. Morals or not. PERIOD. If intel wants to stop overclocking LOCK the FSB! The fact is they get lots of free publicity from us all overclocking and they know it. Why did I buy an Intel for my whole family in the last 5 months when I'm an AMD fan? PURELY due to knowing they overclock like crazy. That's free publicity i'm talking about.

The morality question is for the "OFF TOPIC" section. OR would that be Politics/News?

Actually, morality is indeed relevant to this thread because you are on a public forum advocating fraud. What you do in the privacy of your home is one thing, posting on a public forum is completely different.

OP- If you plan on overclocking, the OEM chips are generally cheaper and perform just as well from my experience.

It's against the law to lie about how I use my chip? Morally wrong yes. Legally wrong NO. To say I'm advocating fraud is misrepresentation of the law here I think. I won't go to jail for lying to Intel. If they catch me, the worst they can do is deny an RMA. Fraud implies legal charges. On top of that I'm sure there would be cases where a noob builder could do this on accident. A whole nightmare for anyone trying to convict even if it were possible to do so. I can see the bad publicity headlines now. "Intel sues customer for overclock"...ROFL. Whatever.

Note I also mentioned I've never had to do it. These chips take massive abuse, you have to be completely foolish to blow them. 9/10 people here agree with what I said even if they're afraid to say it in public...LOL. I don't believe more than ONE in TEN would cop to a blown $1000 chip that was their fault. They would all try to get a new one and roll the dice. To think otherwise is naive at best. Sorry if it offends you, it's just the truth. Fortunately for Intel, they're tough to kill even for a noob.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: dasracht
I was told at microcenter also that the support is now 3 years for oem as well. Even though the oem box for the q9450 says 90 days support, they said that you can go on intel's website and see that it's three years, or call them. I haven't done this though, but I find it odd that my microcenter said the same thing as the op's.

False. While I don't think the guy was lying, he is wrong/misinformed. Intel/AMD don't support oem. That is left to...well...The oem.

@killster1 I never said "kill your chip intentionally", just stated IF it dies use the warranty.

Just to get this out of the way, Overclocking voids your warranty IF your honest OR Intel decides it's cosing them too much money and they need to stop RMA's that are illegitimate.

Can anyone in here tell me they know someone that was DENIED an RMA because it was overclocked? Of course I'm not talking about a chip that looks like it was lit on fire. Barring the visually obvious I think the answer is NO. I owned a PC business for 8 years and NEVER heard of a denied RMA (except AMD, when they didn't return it with the fan, but now that's up to the RMA person you talk to and if they demand it with RMA) and believe me I seriously advocated overclocking...LOL. I was very free with any information about X chip they were buying and what speeds they could expect if they attempted it. Note at the same time I informed them of what voltage they shouldn't cross or expect short lifespans.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: TheJian
9/10 people here agree with what I said even if they're afraid to say it in public...LOL. I don't believe more than ONE in TEN would cop to a blown $1000 chip that was their fault. They would all try to get a new one and roll the dice. To think otherwise is naive at best.

Uh huh. Is that information from a survey you took or are you throwing out wild guesses to justify your lack of integrity? Honesty still means something to a lot of folks. Don't try to group us all in to your way of thinking so you can sleep better at night.

 

[aigomorla]

okey wanna hear something funny?

My best overclocking chips came from oems. i dont know why.

My Absolute INSANE Opty175 3.2ghz not-max @ 1.45Vcore
My E6600 which could do 3.9 but kept at 3.6.
My QX9650 was in an OEM package. LOL! [gonna hush hush about this oc tho]

But i also got my a fair bad shares too.


Anyhow you honestly need to ask yourself these questions, because retail vs oem your luck in the OC of the chip is the same.

1. Are you going to use an aftermarket sink? If yes, you void your warrenty.
2. Are you going to overclock? If you say yes here you also void your warrenty.

If you answer yes to anyone of those questions, your better off saving the extra cash and getting an OEM.

Also when you file an RMA with intel, you need to submit the sink with it. If your sink isnt in a used condition, and if your cpu is fairly old, they will flat out reject your warenty.

Also they will know if you killed your chip due to excessive voltage, so dont even try if you killed it by overclocking with too much voltage.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: TheJian

Can anyone in here tell me they know someone that was DENIED an RMA because it was overclocked?

I can think of quite a few Q6600 owners that did get denied, my cousin for one. IHS Problem. So i ended up lapping it. (and believe me when i say it was the worst ihs case i have ever seen)

Also you need to submit a used stock sink.

I dont think intel's policy is any different on Retails.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: TheJian
9/10 people here agree with what I said even if they're afraid to say it in public...LOL. I don't believe more than ONE in TEN would cop to a blown $1000 chip that was their fault. They would all try to get a new one and roll the dice. To think otherwise is naive at best.

Uh huh. Is that information from a survey you took or are you throwing out wild guesses to justify your lack of integrity? Honesty still means something to a lot of folks. Don't try to group us all in to your way of thinking so you can sleep better at night.

Why don't we take a poll. I'd buy a new chip. aigo? anybody other than aigo here even HAVE a $1000 cpu? What's your price theJian? $800? $8? 8 cents? Is that all your integrity is worth? This is not meant as a personal attack. Look in the mirror and decide how you want your kids to look at you in the future. Will they think that it's ok to steal because daddy does it?