OEM and Retail

T

twistedfinn967

New Member
Hello all, new guy here. I'm going to start my first build and have a question about OEM parts vs. Retail parts. What am I getting with Retail that I'm not getting with OEM? There must be a reason oem is considerably cheaper, whether it's software or hardware. Would I be better off going retail or no?

Thanks in advance!
 
it depends. if you are getting a piece of hardware such as a processor, oem means you just get the chip itself, but if you get retail, it will usually come with a heatsink and fan. If you are getting a hard drive, you just get the hard drive, and none of the extra material (ie. manuals, extra cables), but if you got retail, you would get that extra stuff. Hope that helps.
 
OEM means its just product your getting with no extras, this could mean boxes, thermal paste, maunals, fans...IT should tell you what your getting if your goiong OEM. It could also mean it dsoen't come with any cords.
 
Most of the time, OEM also means a much shorter warranty! Check carefully before buying... some OEM parts have a warranty as short as 30 days.
Tom
 
But OEM is also much, much cheaper. Take one of the extremer cases-retail Windows XP Pro is 250-300$, while OEM (just the disk) is around 150$ usually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top