what is OEM

shanezog

shanezog

shanezog

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I keep seeing stuff for cheap but it has OEM next to it, like there are 2 i5 processors and one is £10 cheaper but says OEM.

Also which windwos 7 do i need to buy the full retail verson for £100 or the OEM one for £75???
 
Original Equipment Manufacturer... With CPU's this means it doesn't come with the cooler for example whereas the retail version does. With other bits of hardware it usually means 'just the product' with no cables, manuals or any extras hence the lower price.
 
Original equipment manufacturer, I think - basically its the same as a retail product minus the trimmings, probably in a brown box and in the case of a cpu will just be the CPU, no cooler, no fancy packaging.

beaten: For the CPU its a good option if you planned to use an after market cooler anyway.

A full retail copy of windows can be installed on any PC you like (but only one at a time), an oem install needs to stay on 1 PC only so if you blow your motherboard it might mean buying another windows, you can still make some system changes though
 
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OEM means - Original Equipment Manufacturer

In terms of hardware it basically means that the product your are purchasing is exactly as it was supplied by the OEM without any fancy packaging or added accessories.

For software stating OEM I have always understood it to mean that it has to be purchased with the hardware that you are intending to use it on
 
It's just the "bare" chip (CPU)...no stock cooler supplied

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer

The full retail of Win7 version would be better for the extra £25 the OEM version would normally be tied to a hardware package and be non transferable
 
I would buy the retail version for the sake of an extra £25 - means you can transfer it to a new build in the future should you wish.
 
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