whats the diff bewteen OEM and Retail?

[aUt0eXebat]

I realize that the Retail you buy from the store, but I saw on an online store that I could buy OEM or Retail vid card...

 

[Tateman1]

Usually OEM is just the bare product. Like for processors, Retail comes with manuals and a heatsink w/fan. OEM is usually just the bare processor, no fan or heatsink. For video cards an OEM card may be stripped down a bit, or it will not come with any manuals or drivers.

 

[toph99]

OEM also has a short warrantee, a few months usually, instead of the retial's few year warrantee

plus with the retail cpu's, you get a nice stick to put on your case

 

[Viper GTS]

OEM products are usually different only in that they don't have any of the fancy packaging. For example, if you buy an OEM P3 FC from a local shop, you get nothing but the CPU embedded in foam, and a static bag. Same thing for HD's, video cards, etc. Also, OEM parts usually don't have all the frills that retail parts have. OEM video cards, for example, rarely have TV out.

For the most part, OEM is the way to go for a DIY system build. Recently, though, there was a big flap about ATI shipping OEM boards at a lower clock speed than their retail counterparts.

Viper GTS

 

[toph99]

also with buying OEM CPU's, it is sometimes suspected(especially if you're buying it for overclocking) that the person selling it could have pre-tested it and be selling you one which doesn't o-c well

 

[Viper GTS]

toph99...

That's why you find a good place to buy from. I personally buy all my hardware, save for cooling, from PC Heidens.

Viper GTS

 

[toph99]

Viper:

nice store! now i just need to find out if they ship to canada