Advantages/Disadvantages to buying OEM?

[aman74]

I was considering buying a Sapphire 9500 Pro OEM, but don't know if it's a good idea or not. In the pic it looks like it comes with two cables, some sort of adapter and a driver CD. In the retail pic it looks like it has one extra adapter and a Catalyst driver CD. Am I going to miss out on alot without having the manual and that extra adapter? What about warranty? What do you guys think about buying OEM in general?

Thanks

 

[Ilmater]

I always buy things OEM unless the warranty is important to me. Most failures in hardware happens within the first 60 days, and if it's still good after that, then it should be good for a few years.

 

[CraigRT]

ATI cards are much different than any other company when it comes to OEMs.
I am not sure if they still do it, but normally OEM cards are clocked slightly lower than retail cards. The biggest downfall of all.

Normally with OEM, the Packaging is either a static bag, or a white box with nothing on it. and you get nothing inside except just the part. the warranty is also not as long as retail, and you don't always get connectors and things you normally get with retail. buy retail if you CAN.. if you just need the part, and nothing else, I'd probably go OEM. I've bought OEM CPU's before, you get no HSF, but if you already have one... who needs that?