OEM or RETAIL

With oem products you generally don't get software, cables, or any accesories

For instance if you order a oem drive of any type you won't get any cables or software, this sometimes is ok because you may all ready have software and most of the time when you purchase a motherboard the cables are supplied but if you don't have these items then a retail purchase is best.

In the case of a cpu, I would not recommend a oem always get retail because it will come with a heatsink fan and you won't have to order a aftermarket. The biggest reason IMHO not to order a oem cpu is because of the warranty, oem normally gives you a 30 day warranty were as retail gives 3 year and for the price differance it just ain't worth it

retail means you get the whole package including nice box lol, a manual if it needs one, a heatsink if its a cpu, a longer warranty and various goodies depending on the product. oem will have basic packaging and pretty much nothing else, sometimes you dont even get the bare essentials like a sata cable for a hard drive for example. edit: doby beat me to it...

OEM means NO warranty or very little warranty


save yourself the trouble; always buy retail, the 10% you save is a sucker deal

thanks everyone, helped alot.

im goin to buy retail. save hassle .

merry xmas all