Athlon XP 1700+ retail or OEM

[KyleMac]

My questions from my previous thread (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=695981) have more or less come down to just this one.

Athlon XP 1700+ OEM £111.86
Athlon XP 1700+ retail £131.60

I need a fan and heatsink, which come with the retail version but more or less cost £20. Is it possible to get a good (about the same as what comes with retail) fan and heatsink for the OEM version for around £10? Or should I just get retail?

£20 isn't much, but this is part of a large upgrade and it soon adds up.

 

[Sporko]

For the first time I went with the XP1700 + retail package rather than go oem and an aftermarket hsf. My rationale was that I was not going to o/c this time around so I didn't need extra cooling. The retail hsf works fine.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Do you plan on overclocking this 1700+? If not then I say go retail. There's no advantage to going retail if you plan on overclocking...you void the warranty and get a cheaper fan that can't handle the thermal dissipation.

 

[KyleMac]

I'm not going to overclock.
The question is: is the hsf that comes with the retail worth £20?

 

[John]

retail = 3 yr AMD warranty
OEM = 30 to 90 day

 

[Siddhartha]

I am using a retaill XP1990+. The first time I turned it on it was so quiet that I looked in the case to make sure it was running. The temps it runs seem to depend on which application I use. BIOS repeorts that it runs in the low to mid 40Cs.