what dose OEM mean?

[Guest]

ive seen it on sound card OS's and the works waht dose it mean and is it a "bad" thing?

 

[camieabz]

<b>O</b>riginal <b>E</b>quipment <b>M</b>anufacturer.

In short, cheap and cheerful. OEM parts usually fill pre-built systems and come with no frills. Depending on the hardware part you may want to go for the retail version.

e.g.

CPUs - Retail version usually comes with HSF.
Drives & Cards - Retail versions come with Manuals, cables, bonus software.

I do know that the retail version of the 64MB Radeon had higher refresh rates guaranteed.

Retail guarantees may be longer.

<b><font color=blue>~ Whew! Finished...Now all I need is a Cyrix badge ~ </font color=blue> </b>

 

[Speedfreak]

I have bought a lot of OEM stuff and I have never had a problem.

Generally speaking if you buy, for example, a MS Intellieye Optical mouse which is not OEM, it arrives in the same fancy box that you would buy over the counter from your local PC store, with all the necessary drivers etc. If you buy the OEM one it might arrive in bubble wrap inside a plain cardboard box - no frills.

The warranty should be the same as non-OEM, but confirm before buying.

The difference is the price. OEM is cheaper.

Hope this helps.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I accidentally blow your head off.......again?