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Advise-a-newbie: buy hard drive OEM or retail?

B

bovinda

Senior member
As a first-time computer builder, should I buy my hard-drive OEM or retail? It seems like it's only 10-15$ more for the retail, and it comes with the necessary cables, instructions, drivers, etc. Is it a big savings to buy a hard-drive OEM and pick up the cables? Is there any other advantage gained by buying an OEM drive? How much difficulty is involved with installing an OEM product? Just for example, buying a Seagate 120 GB SATA drive OEM or retail, which is what I'm looking at.

Thanks,
Jeff
 
If you need the cables & screws, then get retail...if not...get OEM 🙂
 
Welcome to the forums! One of the first tools to learn is the search function, since many of the same questions get asked over and over again.

The search box at the top of the page searches in the current forum, while the box at the left of the screen searches every forum at once (aka "too many notes"). Advanced Search lets you pick only some forums, and lets you find old "archived" threads. It's easy to search!

Here is what search says: HD OEM vs Retail
 
Check the warranties. That's the only important difference you might see.

IDE and SATA cables are usually included with a retail-boxed motherboard, so they'd be redundant coming from a retail-boxed HD as well.

Software drivers are not needed for a hard drive; the included software is generally just diagnostic and copying utilities, and they're free to download anyway from the majors like Seagate and Maxtor. Any drivers you may need would not be for the hard drive itself, but for the motherboard if the chipset does not have native SATA support. SATA drivers would come from the motherboard manufacturer.
 
I have never gotten a retail HDD. All my HDDs run fine. I usually tend to recommend retail when it comes to important stuff like HDDs, but popular retailors (well, Newegg), seems to always sell OEM.
 
Thanks guys. It seems like it would make more sense just to go with the OEM then. DaveSimmons, sorry I didn't search first--I should have, it just seems like my searches always lead me off a thousand tangents that don't address what I'm looking for directly enough. Your link was helpful, and I will try to be less lazy in the future. Thegonagle and Farmer, thanks for the feedback.

Happy holidays all,
Jeff
 
i almsot always get retail but that is due to the massive rebates fry's has. the few OEM drives i've gotten haven't been any less reliable than the retails.
 
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