OEM vs Retail

[SirRiff]

greetings,


Ok, I know retail has the packaging, and instructions and warrenty and stuff. But does retail specifically mean "store bought"? or can you get retail online?

And can you walk into a store and get OEM stuff without knowing it?

Thanks
SirRiff

 

[Arrow]

Works both ways. Usually they'll label it as "OEM" or "retail."

Rob
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[Mavicator]

Retail Box simply means that it is the same thing you would find on a store shelf. Manufacturer's printed box, full load of accessories, software, drivers, hardware, etc. OEM, also known as White Box is the same product, only in a plain white box with no extras.

For example, if you bought an OEM video card, you would receive a plain box with the video card and a driver disk in it, and that's all. If you bought the Retail Box you would get a flashy printed box with the same contents, plus the manufacturer's software and probably some free games or applications. You can get either type online or in a store although not all stores will sell OEM.

-- Ah sh*t! sys64738 --

 

[Guest]

OEM isn't covered by the manufacturer's warranty, the only warranty comes from the company you bought it from. OEM usually won't come with an instruction manual. Retail many times comes with extra software (games for video cards, modem managers for modems, etc), hardware (cables and terminators and such for SCSI adapter cards), and in some cases the hardware is actually better (some retail video cards are clocked slightly higher than OEM, etc). It isn't legal for a store to pass off something OEM as retail.

 

[PCHardstuff]

WRONG!!! OEM's are usually (almost always) covered by manufacturer's warranty, although it may not be covered as long as its retail counterpart. This is particularly true with CPU's. 30 days vs. 3 years. You will probably be fine with oem products but stay away from oem CPU's. Its worth the extra cash for the longer warranty.