Tom's Hardware: Topic Whats retail? Whats OEM?
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Retail is usually a boxed set with everything included. Retail also usually includes a 3-5 year manufacturers warranty. Retail also usually costs more.
OEM may just be a card on its own with a cable and a guide, nothing else. In the case of a video card, it could also be clocked at lower speeds. They're usually a bit cheaper. In the case of CPUs, the retail box comes with a HSF while the OEM version does not. Also OEM things usually only come with a 10-30 day retailer's warranty, so you can't go running to Intel for a defective CPU. You'd have to go to where you bought it.
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But try not to get OEM video cards, unless you hear good thigs about them. They usually use lower quality components and are clocked lower.
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