OEM vs. Retail vs. "New Pulls?"

[apemanttt]

I have a question I really need answered quickly. I'm buying a Santa Cruz sound card, and I've found it for a great price at axiontechnology, but they have three versions. They have the retail and OEM which aren't at great prices, but they have another version which says "New Pulls" for a very good price. What does new pulls mean? Is it used or refurbished or what?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tornadobox]

Retail is like if you'd walk into Best Buy or CompUSA and buy the card...includes the retail box, all extras and nice warrany.

OEM is usually just a bare card, or bare card with drivers (no retail box and often a very limited warranty).

New system pull, would be a card that was in a computer system (sometimes used but they don't say so), usually doesn't come with drivers and a very small warranty.

Hope that helps!

 

[apemanttt]

So you wouldn't really reccomend the new pull would you? I can get OEM for and extra $10.

 

[Ionizer86]

I don't know, but that "new pull" could cause a lot of headache if it was kinda faulty when the first owner tried it out. OEMs usually give you like 30 day warranties, which is enough to play around and make sure the product is working. OEMs are new, and so the majority of OEM products should work trouble-free.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Retail is for end-users, oem is for system integrators/builders.
End-users don't get direct warranty from the manufacturer for most oem stuff (except bare hard drive, original ATI vga card in bulk pack, etc.).
You pay more for the retail cpu, but the manufacturer has taken user-error into account, so whatever you burn it, damage it during installation, misuse, etc, the manufacturer is happy to give you a new replacement immediately.

Sometimes you can even get retail stuff at lower price than oem from some crazy e-tailers with promotion, coupon, pricematch, price error, etc.

 

[Sundog]

On the Santa Cruz cards specifically, you have to get upgrade drivers from the OEM (like dell). Only the retail cards can get and use the drivers from the Turtle Beach website (or so the disclaimers read).

 

[apemanttt]

Well I'm back to debating whether or not I want the Santa Cruz then. I can get it for $63 shipped, or I can just use some cheap sound card for around $10... I don't even have speakers yet. I'm just starting to buy parts for the computer I'm going to build later this week.

 

[Sundog]

Santa Cruz<------This trader has a Santa Cruz for sale.