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Retail or OEM

Advantages of OEM = Cheaper (if you already own a heatsink or intend to move to superior cooling anyway).

Advantages of Retail = 3 year warranty (vs 1 year for OEM) and heatsink is included. Better second-hand value due to cooler and warranty.

Personally, I prefer Retail unless the savings are good.
 
i am stuck in the same boat, i am after core i7 2600k which is going as low as £229 for oem or retail is lowest at £259.59 and i'm struggling to decide. normally i'd go retail but i've already ordered a watercooling kit and i'm thinking £30 notes is quite a saving?
 
always always always go for the retail cpu. Even if you keep it for 1 year you will be passing it on with warranty and will get more money too, besides that cpu will easily last 3 years in performance terms anyway and you would be covered warranty wise.
 
BUZZIN_NICE said:
i am stuck in the same boat, i am after core i7 2600k which is going as low as £229 for oem or retail is lowest at £259.59 and i'm struggling to decide. normally i'd go retail but i've already ordered a watercooling kit and i'm thinking £30 notes is quite a saving?
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If you keep the CPU for 3 years thats £10 per year, dosent sound so bad when you think of it that way.
Tom.:)
 
£30 for peace of mind plus having the option of saying 'This CPU is still under warranty' when you sell it on is probably a good investment. I'm buying a SB system soon and this is the way I see things. It just sucks to see the OEM option right next to the retail version on the order page :(
 
Similar to extended warranties for complete systems. Usually bad value.

Go OEM and put the difference saved in premium bonds or savings. You won't get much interest in this current economic time, but keep it in there - earning you interest - until your next upgrade. This will more than compensate for any loss in re-sale value due to only 1 year warranty.
 
Frank_Rizzo said:
Similar to extended warranties for complete systems. Usually bad value.

Go OEM and put the difference saved in premium bonds or savings. You won't get much interest in this current economic time, but keep it in there - earning you interest - until your next upgrade. This will more than compensate for any loss in re-sale value due to only 1 year warranty.
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How is £24.99 bad value for two extra years warranty? :confused:

I'd far rather have two years extra warranty on an expensive CPU than earn a few £ from my money.

I know a CPU generally doesn't break after 3 years, especially if it has survived the first year, but you don't know that. Rather put £24.99 in now than spend another ~£200 if it breaks.

Additional warranty on a full system usually isn't bad value either, IIRC it was about £60 for an additional 2 years warranty on a Dell PC I quoted someone, this covered everything in the machine. HDD, motherboard, PSU, etc.
 
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I meant for complete systems, like from high street stores. The extended warranties are usually bad value.

I was in Argos once. An elderly lady was in front of me; she bought a £4.99 wall clock. Argos are keen to upsell warranties for everything now and badgered the elderly lady into purchasing an extended three year warranty.

Battery wall clocks rarely fail, and the £1.99 extended warranty for a £4.99 clock has to be the biggest rip-off ever!
 
Argos once tryed to sell me a £3.99 warranty on a £5.00 watch lol

Go oem chips dont realy fail these days, unless you try hard to break them.
Besides in 13 months there will be a better chip to put in the socket if you have to due to killing this one.
 
How many people have had a CPU fail on them between one and three years when they have not either 1) overvolted it or 2) somehow manged to damage it themselves or caused it to overheat due to wrong application of heatsink of something (both of which would probably void your warranty anyway).

Personally if I sell a CPU on its generally attached to the motherboard it was initially installed on, especially if its Intel as they love releasing new chipsets all the time. So OEM or not does not make much difference here.

From my own (albeit anecdotal) experience CPU's are one of the least likely components to fail mid life (unlike GPU's which reguarly fail after a few years) and so I oftem have gone OEM.

Oh and the value of that same CPU in one never mind three years will be a lot less anyhow.
 
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I'd go OEM I think. Probability of random CPU failure between 1 and 3 years is stupidly low.

Also, that cooler you linked to is excellent. I have it on my i5 750 and would definitely recommend it.
 
I'd go OEM and put the extra cash towards a better GPU.
I've never had a CPU fail on me in 15 years of tinkering. Maybe I just don't push 'em hard enough I guess.
 
Retail if you aren't too sure how long it will last, or if you will sell it on, or what. It will always be good that you have the extra warranty to last you. But then again, if you don't care much about the extra warranty, and you are going to use different cooling, you can get OEM and use the money you save towards to cooler itself.
 
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