No0Bish sort of question

[Vybuni]

When im looking around Newegg some of the products say Retail and some say OEM? What exactly is the difference? Should I go for one or the other when im buying?

 

[Ste]

OEM, Original Equipment Manufactured. Basically its just the product, no cables no screws, no fancy pakaging, no manuals or guides. For example if you Buy an OEM harddrive you just get the harddrive in a small package with nothing else. OEM usally have less warranty and are cheaper.

 

[Rapishorrid]

Yeah, OEM is like the way skimped out version of the product. Well sort of. The price difference is usually not that big either so if I were you go with normal. You get all the cables manuals, warrantees free software and stuff too.

 

[Vybuni]

Thanks, thats exactly what i needed to know!

 

[HAVOC]

Yes, OEM is basically what is listed above.

Another thing is OEM products purchased from a retail generally means the retailer bought a (lot or 1000 units or more) of a specific product from a Manufacturer. Retailers won't offer any warranty on the product they sell, and the warranties or RMA's will only be done by the Manufacturer.

OEM products are usually cheaper then the retail version because of the manuals and extras...e.t.c.

One thing i'd never buy would be a OEM CPU. Sometimes they come with much less of even a Manufacturer warranty.

Operating Systems, soundcards, harddrives, optical drives... are all good OEM products to buy/

 

[PZEROFGH]

OEM CPU = no heatsink or fan

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

word... I usually go OEM on hard drives and optical drives. I get the retail on mobo's, processors, video cards... Oh, I usually get OEM ram too. Do they sell it any other way?

Ryan