difference between OEM and OEM refurbs

[sup3rcarrx8]

Is there any real difference the two? I'm helping my friend build a computer and was deciding on Newegg to either buy a OEM refurbed or just a plain OEM CPU (athlon xp 3000 400mhz fsb one). Also, what is the difference between the brown and the green barton chips? I'm a bit confused. Is there a big performance difference between the two? Thanks for any advice!

edit: this CPU will not be overclocked AT ALL and will stay stock

 

[ripit]

Have you seen what newegg considers refurbished and their policys?
I couldn't find it but I swear that I have read on their site that refurbished can mean several things including items that have been returned (not sent to the factory for testing, just repackaged and resold as refurbished). I did find this. Among other things, only 7 days to return a cpu.
Refurbished Items
Newegg.com does not test any product, including Refurbish items. Refurbish components are therefore only tested by the original manufacturer. Due to the varying quality of manufacturer testing, YOU ARE TAKING A RISK BUYING REFURBISH PRODUCTS. Refurbish items are OPEN BOX products that contain components that have previously been owned by other clients and returned to Newegg.com. These products are sold considerably under cost.

Newegg.com guarantees all refurbish products for 15 days. CPUs, however, must be returned within 7 days for refund. All refurbish merchandise should be considered OEM "barebone" parts. Barebone means Newegg.com can only guarantee the item by itself, no other accessories. Despite what the product's description indicates, refurbish merchandise may not include all of the accessories mentioned on our website or the manufacturers. Newegg.com is therefore limited to the barebone part of the item itself. Please do not be upset or surprised if a refurbish product does not contain any cables, manual, software, drivers, fan, et al. Newegg.com will not send you any missing accessories, even if it is an essential part.

Newegg.com certainly does not like to discourage sales, but only experienced pc enthusiasts should consider refurbish items that know how to deal with possibly missing accessories. Please only purchase refurbish products if you are willing to resolve defects and/or know how to obtain missing accessories.

Refurbish items are not for dealers. We therefore reserve the right to cancel any applicable orders which may violate this warning. We are simply discouraging those who want to take advantage of this program as it is aimed towards the end user.

Refurbish products do have considerable higher return rate than brand new items. If you are just looking to get a good deal, please only buy new products.

YOU ARE TAKING A RISK BUYING REFURBISH PRODUCTS.
Sounds pretty risky!

 

[c627627]

'Refurb' is the word they use because they can sell more 'refurbished items' than 'used items.'

newegg does not test used returns. It sells them as 'refurbs'. Somebody ordered that 'refurb' CPU before and may or may not have used it or overclocked it before returning it. They're mostly used items.

 

[sup3rcarrx8]

So it's basically saying that i may end up with a dead CPU or working one? What about the OEM products? Does it have the same policy as the refurbed products? Anyways, it would be a pretty nice risk if the CPU did end up working and since i already have a HSF for it, no accessories are needed (other than AS5 heh)

edit: i'm basically asking if i'll definitely end up with a dead CPU or a working CPU

 

[FyreDaug]

Well OEM is original equipment manufacturor(sp), meaning its JUST the part you are buying, no books, no extra equipment. If you buy a hard drive, thats exactly what you get. As you should know.

OEM refurbished would be an OEM product that was sent back, refurbished items are things that were returned, or were claimed faulty (I think there another section for that) but either way they are -not- guaranteed to work right. Normally refurbished stuff has a reduced warranty though. Look into that.

EDIT: *they are not guaranteed to work right

 

[sup3rcarrx8]

Well OEM is original equipment manufacturor(sp), meaning its JUST the part you are buying, no books, no extra equipment. If you buy a hard drive, thats exactly what you get. As you should know.

OEM refurbished would be an OEM product that was sent back, refurbished items are things that were returned, or were claimed faulty (I think there another section for that) but either way they are -not- guaranteed to work right. Normally refurbished stuff has a reduced warranty though. Look into that.

EDIT: *they are not guaranteed to work right

I guess i should go the straight-out OEM products then. Also, is there a huge performance difference between the 333mhz and 400mhz fsb chips? The computer will most likely have a stick of 512mb ddr333mhz and i don't see how it could benefit if i got the 400mhz fsb chip for it.

 

[ripit]

One Thing you should check. I have bought both oem and retail packaged amd cpu's. I could be remembering wrong, but I think that retail cpu's have a 3 year waranty and oem have either 1 year or no waranty. The oem one is still a brand new cpu of the same quality but the waranty can be diffrent. check amd's site to see what the waranty is.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_867,00.html
That kind of looks like no waranty but I'm not sure.
If it it is going to have 333mhz memory then going to a 400fsb chip is a waste from the perspective of the bus speed. I am no expert in this area but my own personal experience is that going from a 333mhz to a 400mhz bus gives a noticable performance increase. If the price isn't too much higher, I would consider the 400mhz bus with 400mhz memory (pc3200 if I recall right). You are right though, if the memory you get is 333mhz, there is no advantage to a 400mhz cpu.
I haven't really looked into the xp3000 (I run an xp2400 and an xp2500 right now) but If it were me (I don't mind doing a little research to get the most for my money and I am usally not in a big rush to buy) I would defanatly find out the diffrence between the diffrent cores and such. There may be more of a diffrence to the 333mhz and 400mhz chips than just the bus speed. I cannot recall what the diffrence between the brown and green are (I think that one is just newer) but that might make a diffrence because they are constantly making little changes in processor design. t might be worth looking a little further into befor you buy.
Does anyone else know the diffrences between the diffrent xp3000 chips?