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OEM or Retail Hard drive?

S

Syborg1211

Diamond Member
Some say that the oem and retail are different in quality somewhat and some others say that oem is the same as retail but without warranty or cords or anything. Is this true? Is it worth 20 bucks more for retail? Is there any difference between the drives themselves? Can retail handle higher fsb speeds than the oem one?
 
Get OEM and save $$...it's the same drive minus the cables, box, etc. 🙂
 
Or get retail and be guaranteed a warranty. My friend's 27GB Maxtor died and even though it is less than a year old, no support whatsoever from Maxtor. They just referred him to a place that sells hard drives to buy another one.
 
OEM drives are the same as retail, minus the pretty box and cables. There should be no difference in warranty length. You can't even buy retail SCSI drives, though they all carry 5 year warranties. I've owned a number of OEM Maxtor drives, had 3 die on me at random times, and Maxtor replaced all of them, without any questions. So long as you get a drive from a major manufacturer (Maxtor, WD, Seagate, Quantum (I don't know about IBM)), you get a full warranty buying OEM.
 
If you order a retail version of a hard disk drive you get the drive, standard packaging, an instruction manual, and, usually, an 80-wire 40-pin IDE cable and a drive configuration and management utility on a floppy disk. If you order an OEM version usually you get just the drive, I believe. You may download from the manufacturer?s website the setup utility and instruction manual, however. The performance of the two versions should be identical, but you should check with the maker's website for their warranty policies. Search for a recent thread on this topic of HDD warranties.

I think some makers differentiate between retail, OEM and gray market OEM, and the HDD's serial number tells them which type you have.
 
I forgot to mention that the IBM 75gxp is really the only drive I am interested in knowing about. Is that one drive I posted from Buy.com an oem or retail version?
 
I bought an OEM IBM 75GXP - my first OEM drive. Haven't had to check the warantee (crosses fingers)
 
excellent choice in monitors cyborg1211

DAMN YOU CYBORG1211, I had to buy that drive, just so you know,
A certain tech site has a $15 coupon on orders over $100 untill dec12.
 
Buy the OEM if it's cheaper, but I've seen lots of stores that sell Maxtor retail drives for the same price as the OEM version. That's a no brainer if I ever heard of one!
 
OEM and Retail drives are the same. Retail comes with book, setup disk, cable and box. They both have same warranty time and RMA just the same.
 
OEM = Retail minus box, cables, jumpers and manuals.
Warranties are the same.

If the manufacturer doesn't honor the warranty then you 1. You have a stolen drive or 2. The warranty expired.

If the retailer who sold you the OEM drive also has a warranty you should be able to take it back to them, granted they aren't a shoddy joint. Most do!
 
<<Anyone know specifically about oem and retail IBM hard drives?>>

You'll have to deal with the OEM that the drive is sold to, IBM will not support ANY OEM hard drives. There is a difference between &quot;OEM&quot; and &quot;bare&quot;, both come in w/o any kind of packaging, neither will have bundle software, cables, screws mounting brackets and such. But the difference is that bare drives meant to be sold to end users or computer shops and they do carry the same warranty as retail package. OEM drives are sold to vendors like Dell, Gateway and Micron alike, to lower costs, OEMs agree to run the warranties themselves, saving IBM a lot of trouble, therefore you'll have to get warranty through the OEM. But in many situations these OEMs will not honor the warranty unless if the drive come in their PC.

Other manufacturers such as Seagate and Quantum will look at the situation and decide whether to warranty the OEM drives. Maxtor's &quot;no quibble&quot; policy will warranty all drives, regardless of whether they're OEM, bare, or retail. However, all of these hdd companies will recommend you to try the OEMs first.
 
The price difference between OEM and Retail is not usually great that I would rather get a retail drive. Should you have any problem with the drive, you can return it to the manufactorer for an exchange. OEM is dependent on the reliability of the retailer.
 
Save yourself the money and go with an OEM Maxtor if you can find one. Much cheaper, and Maxtor ain't bitches like IBM about warranties. My friend has had great experiences with Maxtor's warranty policy, and I've never had to take advantage of the warranty at all.
 
Oh, I don't know. Maxtor are very good at supporting their drives. I hear they replace drives for 3 years with no gestapo questions. I'm seriously considering them for the new year.
 
I give another vote for Maxtor. I recently had a HD that was 1.5 years old develop more and more bad sectors. Called them up and they asked me like 5-6 questions and had the new drive within the week. Great service... Good Luck.
 
LXi is right on about ibm oem drives (as any gateway owner can attest to).

I personally have given up on ibm drives. Out of 5 that I've installed for friends and family, three have developed bad blocks or otherwise died. The RMA process is a hassle (only via fax).

Maxtor drives seem have fewer troubles and the online RMA process (with easy cross-shipping) is much better.

Everyone says that IBM is the best, but they also that about Asus and Abit. I'll take an MSI over those two anyday.
 
Lxi: You're wrong. IBM gives a 3 year warrenty on their OEM drives. I gave them the SN on my OEM drive from buy.com and they said it had a 3 year warrenty.
 
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