differance between a oem and retail

[Junior]

one of my comp guru recommended buying a Intel/Celeron 600 fc/pga-retail chip......I looked at a Intel/Celeron 600 fc/pga-oem chip ......can anyone help a beginer what's the diff?

[engjohn]

The retail comes with an Intel Heat Sink and Fan (HSF) and a 3 year warranty. The OEM does not come with a HSF and only has a 30 day warranty.

[Liquid_N2]

Plus you don't get one of those lovelly little badges for your case with the OEM version.

Depending on the price difference and the amount of cash you have in your pocket the best one to go for is the retail if you can.

No difference in chip though, just the package that it comes with, Retail = stuff, OEM = nothing but chip.

Hope this helps.

[batboy]

Some folks claim that the retail chips are better overclockers. It's not clear if Intel uses better chips for the retail box since they have a longer warranty, or if it's because "some" venders are pretesting the OEM chips and selling the nice overclockable ones for more cash. If so, you might get stuck with a dog. The retail boxes are factory sealed, so they can't pretest them.