Retail or OEM

[izit]

I always buy OEM but a second cooler is always handy.
Plus the 1155 CPUs come with a better fan than 775 and maybe 1156? so could always flog it on to a mate etc.

 

[sas30uk]

I read on a website not so long ago that retail are better for overclocking i dont know how true this is im sure someone on here knows. But since i read that i woul stick to retail, plus the warranty side of things for the extra few £'s is worth it imo.

 

[SparkyG]

Go OEM then put the savings towards a better HSF

 

[Caracus2k]

I read on a website not so long ago that retail are better for overclocking i dont know how true this is im sure someone on here knows. But since i read that i woul stick to retail, plus the warranty side of things for the extra few £'s is worth it imo.

Heard this before but have never been shown an actual test to demonstrate that its a fact so gonna call smelly bovine mess on this one (Im willing to retract of course if anyone can demonstrate otherwise)

A serch under 'do retail cpus overclock better than oem' in a popular search engine results in lots of anecdotal opinion but no conclusive proof either way. Given that the OEM CPU's also go to the big computer sellers like DELL, COMPAQ etc I doubt there are any different in quality to retail personally....

These claims that they are different sounds more like someone trying to justify paying 10 - 15% more for the same thing to me (ok i know you get a heatsink and two years of extra warranty - but would argue these are not worth the extra if you are looking to overclock anyway)....

 

[FoxEye]

Keep in mind that if you intend to keep the CPU yourself for a number of years, there's no such thing in this country as a 1-year warranty.

Under Sale of Goods act you'll get longer coverage than that.

For selling it on, the 3-year warranty is obviously a bonus - if it's transferable to the new owner. It's not always!

 

[Tonester007]

... 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.

Agreed. Whenever shops try and sell them to me, the conversation goes like this:

Tonester: I'd like to buy this please.
Shop asst: It only has a 12 month guarantee, would you like the 2 year warranty?
Tonester: Why - is it going to break in the next 3 years?
Shop asst: Oh no sir.
Tonester: Well then I don't need it, do I?

On topic: I usually go OEM for all my components.