Buying OEM Hardware...

[ezdriver]

Are there any disadvantages to going OEM as opposed to retail box when buying computer hardware? I've heard that sometimes equipment might be configured for a manufacturer's needs, which could make it difficult to work with (such as driver updates). Anyway, can anybody shed some light on this because there is such a large market of OEM parts which are fairly inexpensive compared to Retail.

 

[bozo1]

<< I've heard that sometimes equipment might be configured for a manufacturer's needs, which could make it difficult to work with >>


That usually refers to OEM stuff manufactured for a particular company like Dell, Gateway, etc., not the OEM stuff you would buy from an online reseller. (or local mom&pop shop) For the most part, the OEM stuff you'd buy from Newegg, etc., is the same as retail except you don't get certain things. No fancy box. (who cares) No fancy manual in some, but not all, cases. As far as drives go, you usually do not get a cable with them. (big deal) You usually get whatever software/drivers are appropriate for the item. (even tho there is usually more recent stuff at the manufacturers website)
Stuff labeled as 'white box' is usually identical to retail except it will come in a plain box.
Depending on the item, warranty could be different. Drives have the same warranty as their retail flavors. CPU's on the otherhand are only warrantied by the reseller - you have to go to them for replacement if you have a problem and the length of warranty varies between resellers. All depends on the item.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

You don't get the nifty box and sometimes you don't get the nifty software bundle and sometimes the warranty is shorter, so it depends. I get OEM drives all the time and they work great. OEM hard drives often do not have an ATA133 hard drive cable with them so you might need to purchase that. I get OEm processors because I like to buy other fans for them.

 

[Rhombuss]

Besides the useless frills that usually come with retail boxed products, the warranty on OEM products is usually shorter than on their retail counterparts.

 

[TheCorm]

Some OEM products such as graphics cards are less overclockable than Retail but I think it's the packaging, warranty & software/accessory bundle that are the main diffs.

Corm

 

[munki]

the warranty is usually a noticable amount shorter. im building a new system and i messed up and got an oem processor instead of a retail. now i only have 30 days (prolly around 22, now) warranty on my cpu and theres no way for me to even test it in that amount of time. i still need a vid card and ram. so, thats something to look at. plus, in some cases i would really want the software bundle.

basically, sometimes the trimmings are nice and usually, the longer warranty is very nice. plus its usually only a few dollars more.

 

[foofoo]

i purchased an adaptec 2440u2w scsi card a few years ago oem and found out later that i can now use the downloaded new bios from adaptec. the support person said that their bioses were specific to the oem user and that flashing my card (she could tell by the serial # that it was oem) would render it unusable. so i didnt try it. anyway, this is the only place where i found a problem going oem. for drives, etc. it's been good

 

[kjacobs]

It varied with my system.

I bought the CPU retail so that it came with an approved heatsink/fan. I bought the hard drive retail mainly for the install utility (altho I'm sure that is not a big deal). The CD-RW was retail and the zip and floppy were OEM. The zip still came with an install CD.

Ken

 

[Kingofcomputer]

oem stuff is supposed to be sold to system builders in bulk package, the manufacturers may just give them one copy of manual and driver, the system builders make their own all-in-one manual and driver for their house-built system. many computer vendors sell such oem stuff to end-users beside selling house-built system. most manufacturers don't provide warranty to end-user on such oem stuff, only few exceptions - bare harddisk, ati made oem vga card, diamond oem vga card, etc do have same warranty as retail version. every vendors do give their own warranty on oem stuff, you can see that all oem stuff have a dated sticker, that's how a vendor determines if it's sold by them and when's it sold.

 

[NIUBurned]

Orcish, that would be more correct if you were talking about refurbished items, but not oem.

An oem product (99/100) of the time is simply the EXACT same product in a cheap package. After it rolls off the assembly line its put with the bare minimum extras and sold like that.

I really doubt they just pick up all the hardware they drop off the floor and throw it in a OEM box and hope it works.