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Overclocking...OEM vs Retail?

S

Staz

Senior member
I am about to purchase an A64 3000+ 939-pin Winchester core that I plan on overclocking. I already have a good overclocking Nforce3 board, Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 memory, and I have an XP-90 HSF. All I need to buy is the CPU itself.

I have been watching the prices on these CPU's and they are starting to go up, plus I see that the OEM ones are more expensive than the retail ones. So is there a difference when it comes to overclocking between the retail chip and an oem chip? I don't care about the longer warranty as I will be overclocking it, which voids it. I also don't care about the stock HSF as I wont be using it. Are those the only 2 differences?
 
Where are you seeing this??? I bought an OEM chip cause it was chepaer then the retail by about 20 bucks....It should be cheaper since youu are only getting a 30-90 day warranty versus retails 3 year warranty and hsf....In all business moedls OEM are cheaper plain and simple...

As for ocing...Absolutely no differences in them...luck of the draw...
 
Originally posted by: Duvie
Where are you seeing this??? I bought an OEM chip cause it was chepaer then the retail by about 20 bucks....It should be cheaper since youu are only getting a 30-90 day warranty versus retails 3 year warranty and hsf....In all business moedls OEM are cheaper plain and simple...

As for ocing...Absolutely no differences in them...luck of the draw...
Click to expand...

The OEM chip was about $3 more expenisve than the retail one at Newegg earlier today, but it's cheaper now.
 
they are exactly same chips. oem or retail. go retail for the stock hsf though. it is suprisingly decent and should bring you to about 2.6-2. on a decent chip.
 
Since you already have a heatsink that you'll want to use, get the oem version. If you put an aftermarket heatsink on a retail chip it voids the warranty.
 
only if they find out about it. dont ask dont tell. if you get the retail, run it for a little while with the stock hsf, then switch over to the aftermarket cooler. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
Since you already have a heatsink that you'll want to use, get the oem version. If you put an aftermarket heatsink on a retail chip it voids the warranty.
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That is not enforcible by AMD. I had a bud who had an aftermarket cooler installed and he had to send back the chip along with the stock HSF and I recall they did not ask him at all. I think they check if you still have all the sticky thermal on the HS.
 
Originally posted by: globalcitizen
Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
Since you already have a heatsink that you'll want to use, get the oem version. If you put an aftermarket heatsink on a retail chip it voids the warranty.
Click to expand...


That is not enforcible by AMD. I had a bud who had an aftermarket cooler installed and he had to send back the chip along with the stock HSF and I recall they did not ask him at all. I think they check if you still have all the sticky thermal on the HS.
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what do they do if you still have the thermal stick on the HSF...void the warranty since you may have not used it???
 
they probably just check to see that it HAS been used. that's why i say run it for a while first, then switch. i've been running with the stocker for a few weeks now.
 
Originally posted by: thriemus
Warranty and thats it, no other difference. Except some nice packaging 🙂
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You forgot about the HSF. I like AMD's retail HSF. It has a thermally controlled fan on the HS. In a well ventilated case, it only runs at like 3K RPM. This is overclocked, and with a raised Vcore (1.48v, closed case) running Prime95.

Anyway, if you don't care about the warranty, or HSF, get the OEM model.

BTW: KHX sucks.
 
Just keep in mind that the retail HSF with the winchesters is pretty good. I get my 3000+ up to 2.5Ghz and no pblms at all with temps. Several people are getting 2.6-2.7 with the retail hsf also!!!
 
yeah the stock HSF will most always bring you to the pratcical max of your chip; by practical i mean any clockspeed using ~1.6 vcore 😉
 
Only caveat about OEM procs is that if you buy one from a smaller outfit, the employees may have already picked them over for good OCers. Not an issue if you're buying from someplace big like Newegg or ZZF.
 
Pricing depends on where you go. When I bought my 3000+, it was $154 shipped for the retail from newegg, and the cheapest OEM I could find at the time was $155. So i got the retail (free decent HSF!), and I've been using stock cooling ever since - no cooling problems at 2.55GHz, either. OEM is supposed to be cheaper, but it's not always the case. As for the performance differences, there are no average differences, but painman may be right in some cases. With retail this isn't an issue, plus you get a 3 year warranty (of course OCing voids it, but hey). If prices are close, go retail, but if there is a big price gap ($10-20), which almost never happens with chips whose prices are less than $200, anyways, then maybe the OEM savings are worth it.
 
Originally posted by: Reiniku
no case badge 🙁
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That really kills it for me too. It's just less value for money - a measly £4 difference on a A64 3200+! You don't get the HSF, 3 yr warranty, case badge or colourful packaging!

That's costs AMD more than £4 (I should hope) so its more a matter of principle!
 
why would you want a case badge? if someone put a damn sticker on my case, i would be liable to skin them alive! i'm no ricer and my computer wont look like i am one either!
 
Originally posted by: Painman
Only caveat about OEM procs is that if you buy one from a smaller outfit, the employees may have already picked them over for good OCers. Not an issue if you're buying from someplace big like Newegg or ZZF.
Click to expand...

That's always been a major concern of mine. Having worked in a small computer shop for a couple years when I was younger, I know this does sometimes happen. Anyway, IMO you get a nice HSF for the money.
 
Originally posted by: Mrvile
Eew, Kingston Hyper-X.
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Whats wrong with Kingston Hyper-X memory, I thought it was decent stuff???

Also nailed a A64 300+ Winchester OEM at Newegg for $142 with free shipping, best price I have seen to date.
 
Nothing is wrong with your Kingston it's bottom rung of the good stuff though. If you want really good RAM (great customer support) you'll want to look into OCZ. I got rid of my Corsair for the OCZ. It's a classic example of a company that really sucked and they worked their asses off and became a really good company that puts out a really really good product.
 
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