Retail HSF vs. OEM + aftermarket for non-oc'd systems

[Booty]

I'm looking for opinions... in the past I've usually purchased retail CPU's (from Newegg) because of the longer warranty and not having to mess with making sure the aftermarket HSF was sufficient. But I'm wondering if I can reduce costs at all by going the OEM route...

When I build for myself, I go OEM and get a nice big enthusiast heatsink, of course... but when I build for others I have to fight that urge, so...

If you were building a system for someone else that wasn't going to be overclocked, would you go with a retail or OEM chip? If you went OEM, what kind of HSF would you get?

 

[Sheriff]

Go retail, only a few bucks more, you get the HS/Fan and the 3 yr warranty for them, but you knew that already

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Sheriff
Go retail, only a few bucks more, you get the HS/Fan and the 3 yr warranty for them, but you knew that already

I totally agree...

I rarely see the oems so much lower I can afford an aftemarket hsf of decent or equal quality...PLus then the warranty....

The Barton2500+ I bought came with the hsf of the barton 3200+ and ran it much better then I think a good majority of the aftermarket ones...Since dfference from retail to oem in P4s to amds can sometimes be less then 10.00 bucks I say go find an aftermarket hsf for that cost with shipping and handling...

 

[Booty]

That's always been my thought as well... it just doesn't seem like the OEM chips are worth it unless they're for an Enthusiast who's going to try to OC a bit. I just kinda questioned it when I read the AT buyers guide... I wondered why they recommended an OEM chip for the budget guide...

 

[Sheriff]

Probably cause most of us are Enthusiast's and we already have a bitchin HS/Fan and just want to up out Boxes a few Mhz

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Sheriff
Probably cause most of us are Enthusiast's and we already have a bitchin HS/Fan and just want to up out Boxes a few Mhz

I agree..... However in my situation I still like the Retail box chips for the fact it commands much higher resale value with the warranty then the small price increase it takes initially.

It comes better packed as seen by the days of mass bent pins from oem cpus from outpost.com....

The fan for most parts with the p4c models are sufficient for many ocers up to 3.2ghz and so instead of wasting a whole load of cash one may wait and see if they have a chip that warrants anything more then average. I have seen 2.4ghz barely make it to 3.0ghz and in that case the stock was more then sufficient.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Retail > OEM for systems at stock speed.