Hey does any one know the real difference between OEM and Retail?

[rEaL_sMoKeRz]

Well i dont live in US, so i dunno. All i know that the bulk ones are cheaper cuz AMD does not officially provide A/S for those items, and resellers buy them cheaper price because of that. I also know that they put their own A/S warrantees(so called Dealer Waranteez).
Well, i know all this, but which one, OEM and Retail, means the one that is guranteed A/S by AMD, and which one is not(one with dealer warantee)?
I was looking for stuff on Pricewatch and it was getting messed up in my head
so please reply soon!!
Im wonderin cuz im gonna go to US and buy all the hardwarez there.

 

[ryeandi]

oem products are components that manufactures sell to companies that build systems like dell, packard bell, or gateway. these are sold cheeper to these companies because they don't require individual packaging and documentation and are bought in bulk. the warranty responsibility is also taken over by this company. often these companies buy too many and they end up in the retail market. the products are usually the same as their boxed retail counterparts just with out the packageing and documentation. oem products are always cheeper.

 

[rEaL_sMoKeRz]

<b>so does that mean Retail is better than OEM, cuz retail is boxed and OEM isn't? and cuz OEM is cheaper?? Well then, what do u call real boxed items that are sold by the companies with documentation and warantee? Lemme guess cuz im not so sure, but is it called white box? I saw them on pricewatch. The three words i saw were OEM, Retail, and White box, whatever that means...
Well so
OEM- is cheaper than Retail, (its bulk??)
Retail- is cheaper than whitebox, (it has box???)
whitebox- is most expensive (but with full a/s and warantee and box??)
Am i on the right direction??
thanx again </b>

 

[Big Mike]

Close, your kinda mixed up though on the last two.
OEM - ussually comes in whatever packaging the dealer throws it in <IE hd in a static bag, no disks, no manuals>
White box - comes in a generic box that says "video card" or whatever and has basic drivers and maybe a xeroxed manual
Retail - what you buy at compusa, etc, comes with a color manual and cds with drivers, programs, demo games, etc etc
prices are ussually oem, white box, then retail
personally for 90 percent of what i buy i get oem or whitebox because i have no need for the BS in the retail package.