[arctic388]

can someone plainly tell me what the difference is between something that is OEM -vs- Retail ?

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

original equipment manufacturer; a company that manufactures a given piece of hardware (unlike a value-added reseller, which changes and repackages the hardware)

but basically, oem hardware comes in a dinky little cardboard box while retail comes in plastic packaging with labels and all... i believe oem is cheaper

[b1gapl]

I believe that the retail is packaged along with other stuff too, so retail would be more expensive.

[vaderpro]

Retail will come with a manual and cd/software whereas oem you get just the product/thats it...

What item(s) were you lookin at? Something like a harddrive/dvd drive go oem cause its cheaper...something like a CPU get retail cause itll come with a heatsink and instructions etc...

[arctic388]

thanks

DVD drive
Hard Drive
CPU

this being my first build i just want to make sure i get cable fans etc. instructions ? all that good stuff i need. i dont want to get all this stuff then find out i need cables and such.
right now the only OEM pats i have picked is the Hard Drive, which i'm thinking of getting that from a brick and mortar store and the OS which i am researching now.

thanks

[cedjunior]

Also, Retail CPU's have a much longer warranty than OEM, so stay away from OEM CPU's. Usually companies like Dell, Gateway, HP buy OEM parts.

[arctic388]

what about OS ?

how can that be different ? aint it just a CD ?

[Vybuni]

Get these parts OEM: Hard drive, CD/DVD drives, floppy drive (if you really need one), maybe RAM, and definately the OS. OEM XP is like almost half the price of the retail version.

[bigbaddog]

Basiclly OEM OS is fine-some people argue that tech support for OEM disc stinks-Have you ever called MicroSoft tech support? You will have better luck finding answers in a forum like this. Hard drives and optical drives and the like go with OEM-the warranties are usually the same-always buy retail CPU's the warrantees are 3 years compared to 30 days for OEM. Vidoe cards can go either way-sometimes they come with cool game packs in the retail box-not so with OEM-and lots of times retail is not that much more.

[Rmaia]

do OEM always have the required cords? I purchased an oem WD HD and a NEC dvd drive and I'm wondering if I should go buy some extra cables at my local shop before they get here.