OEM vs Retail

ShakeNBake

ShakeNBake

ShakeNBake

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Surrey, UK
Stupid question, but what is the difference between products labelled with 'OEM' and 'Retail' - especially CPU's and sound cards...?

Thanks in advance.
 
oem - Original equiptment manufacturer, cheaper, comes form the original manufacturer, probably with no warranty, or a smaller warranty, and no extras.

retail - from a store with store warranty, extras and so on
 
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retail includes retail packaging and sometimes additional items , OEM is how the item would be supplied to a system builder , usually just the item/card on its own in an antistatic bag

eg a retail cpu will usually be boxed in some nice plastic display packaging and include a heatsink/cooler and some useless manuals whereas an OEM cpu will probably just come in a little brown box in an antistatic bag
 
an OEM cpu will come without a heatsink, so you'd have to buy an aftermarket one.

Not sure about warranty, there must be some, but you'd have to check.
 
To put it in the simplest of terms its virtually cheaper packaging and usually one a 1 year warranty rather then a retail warranty which is usually 3 years or more .
 
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