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oem or retail?

my understanding is that the OEM just comes with a 30 day warranty and no heat sink/fan. I usually buy OEM because I prefer to use better HS/Fs for cooling. Retain has a 3 year warranty in which time the cpu is practically obselete or worth $20-30.
 
Maybe I'm nuts, but I prefer retail cpu's for the guarantee and for the packaging. Too easy to pick the best overclockers out of a tray of oem's, sell off the rest.

I know it's silly paranoia, that nobody at the large web-firms has the time or inclination to do things that way. Well, uh, not likely, I suppose, yeah, so I buy retail ones.
 
I agree with Jhhnn. A sealed retail box insures no one has tested your CPU and sold you a non-overclocker. Also don't accept a retail box that has been opened. I have had goodluck with overclocking retail CPUs even with the stock retail fans. The Intel stock fans are better than many after market products. R.
 
Retail package gives you a HSF, and guaranteed that your CPU is not remarked, and 3 year warranty.

OEM is CPU only, less warranty (retailer dependent, I've got people that gives me 1 year to 7 days) and you have the chance getting a remarked CPU(very hard to get one these days... but you never know)
It's cheaper to get a OEM.

I think the reason that Intel started to have retail package is to
stop the flow of remarked CPU mostly, mostly outside US where the law
couldn't be enforced. and this way Intel might get more money out
of it as well. and of course, AMD follows because they encounter the same problem.
 
I always buy OEM CPU's and put the savings toward a better HSF. For me the warranty issue is moot.
 
Most of the time I buy the retail version because, like jhhnn, it gives me piece of mind AND I have had better luck with them. If you are planning on OCing the crap out of it, go OEM - because the warranty is voided anyway.

On another note, I see all these cooler reviews for the Tbirds, but they never mention how the
retail heatsink/fan performs. Anyone want to comment on it?
 
I'm not worried about the short warranty or lack of a stock HSF when it comes to OEM cpus. But I have to wonder if there isn't something to the quality issue...just seems like you have a better chance of getting a quality cpu with higher OC potential if you go retail. I wish someone would prove me wrong since I would rather not pay extra for a retail cpu unless it really makes a difference.
 
I found if buying new froma retail store, there really isn't much difference between oem and retail boxed.(If buying from an individual, I always go with boxed) On the mid-lowend market, the difference between retail and oem isn't that much. I bought a celeron 600 retail for $89 when the oem version form the same place was 72. I found the sub-100 chips are usually the case. I bought my PIII-700 as oem and my previous chip, PII-400(when that was the sh!T) as oem and haven't noticed anything different in quality. I would just say buy from a company that you are happy with or others are happy with, then no matter what style you go with, you will b fine. In my own cases, generally if the thing worked when I first started it, it works for a long time. And I mean things without moving parts liek CPU, memory, and motherboards. Oh yeah, you do usually get a cool little case sticker with retail cpus, with oem, you need to get one seperatley.
 
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