OEM vs retail

[tigersty1e]

What's the difference?

Is it the support?

Also, I plan on getting Vista and only play games and internet, word docs. Is Vista home basic enough?

 

[Canterwood]

I think this is 'basically' correct.

OEM - Can be used on one PC and is tied to the motherboard of that PC. License cannot be transfered to another PC.

Support comes from the manufacturer you purchased the PC from.


Retail - Can be used on one PC, but can be transfered to another PC as long as its no longer used on the old one.

Much more expensive than OEM. Comes with some support from Microsoft.


Your other question.

Yes, Vista Home basic is enough to play games and surf the intenet on.

It doesn't have the fancy Aero GUI, or media center etc, but thats a bonus in my personal opinion. 🙂
Its also by far the cheapest version.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: Canterwood
I think this is 'basically' correct.

OEM - Can be used on one PC and is tied to the motherboard of that PC. License cannot be transfered to another PC.

Transferring the license to another computer. Is it illegal or just not possible because of cd key issues.

Is the CD key valid for only 1 install?

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e

Originally posted by: Canterwood
I think this is 'basically' correct.

OEM - Can be used on one PC and is tied to the motherboard of that PC. License cannot be transfered to another PC.

Transferring the license to another computer. Is it illegal or just not possible because of cd key issues.

Is the CD key valid for only 1 install?

You can install the OS as many times as you like, just only on the original PC it came with or was installed/activated on.

If you tried moving the license to a different PC at a later date, you may have activation issues due to a change of motherboard.

Thats why OEM is so much cheaper than retail.

 

[tigersty1e]

What about hard drives and DVD drives?

I see some are OEM and some are retail. What's the difference?

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
What about hard drives and DVD drives?

I see some are OEM and some are retail. What's the difference?

Boxed and unboxed generally.

A retail DVD drive will be boxed with some software and a warrantly from the manufacturer, whereas an OEM one will just be in bubblewrap or similar and may or may not come with some basic software.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
What about hard drives and DVD drives?

I see some are OEM and some are retail. What's the difference?

When it comes to hard drives, the warranty is pretty much the same on both OEM and retail versions. I am not so certain about optical drives. The main difference is that you will not receive the software you will get in the boxed versions. You might be able to save a few bucks on OEM drives if you do not need the software. Most of the time the savings is not all that huge if you buy the drives online like at newegg. In that case I would opt for the retail version if available.

 

[tigersty1e]

What kind of software does it come with?

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
What kind of software does it come with?

stuff like PowerDVD or WinDVD and Nero or Roxio burning software. Sometimes they come with some cheap stupid games or utilities unrelated to using the drive (and usually you're better off without). Personally, I use VLC for playing DVDs anyway and I use ImgBurn for burning; both of these are free.