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OEM vs. Retail

Z

zxcv

Member
Is there a big difference in buying an OEM board vs. Retail (specifically the Asus P4S533)?
What is not included in the OEM? (warranty?)
 
Usually a much shorter warranty, 30 days is the norm but it can be up to 90 days for authorized resellers/dealers. With OEM, you get 'white' or 'brown' box packaging, no fancy retail packaging with spiffy printing on the box. You get very little documentation with OEM products, no 'bonus' stuff like antivirus software, stickers or case badges, just a driver disk or CD and a very skimpy one or two page 'manual'. You may or may not even get cables, ask the reseller.
 
Newegg entered a new phase in selling their Asus mainboards. It's "Retail Boxed, and you gotta buy another hardware item like a case or CPU with it. We won't sell you an Asus mobo all by itself." Ten days ago, nearly every Asus mainboard Newegg sold was OEM. I emailed Newegg and asked what OEM meant. "The mainboard, and the manual--that's all," they emailed me in reply.

I spent the six more bucks needed to get the RB'd version, from Directron. If you don't have Web access, you don't have the needed drivers with the OEM package, at least the way Newegg sold 'em a week ago. Newegg is pinched for profit with their Asus boards, I don't know why else they'd risk losing so many Asus board customers.
 
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