Retail or OEM ?

[buffdaddy110]

I've decided I've tested Vista long enough to where I want to go ahead and buy it. My question is whether or not I should get the retail or the OEM version. I'm planning on getting Ultimate, and OEM is far cheaper than retail. I've always bought OEM versions of XP, but is the price difefrence to good to be true with Vista OEM vs Retail. I want to make sure I'll still be able to do upgrades and rebuild my computer every 2 year like I do, and not have licensing problems.

 

[mickeddie]

I might be wrong, but I always thought that OEM's were cheaper because they were designed for system builders and don't come with the same support as the retail versions. I had an issue with my Vista OEM and called MS and was instructed that with an OEM I need to contact the system builder, which in this case was me. Then they told me I'd have to pay for support. I ended up finding my answer on the web for free.

As far as the licensing there should be no difference with Vista as there was with XP regarding new hardware. When you build a new system you just need to call MS and verify that you uninstalled the OS from your old PC.

BTW, I got my OEM from ebay for cheaper than any e-tailer.

Again, if I am wrong I appologize.