Question: OEM products

[Paradox]

For Intel CPUS, are OEM CPUS any different than Retail Cpus in preformance?

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Pentium II 350mhz (@412 4*103...can anyone gimme a P3?) 256PC100 Ram, 8.4gig WD, Vanilla G400 32mb, Diamond MX300

[Wombat]

Retail CPU's are supposedly more reliable overclockers. 3-year warranty, too.

-Wombat

[stephan]

OEM has the same performance as RETAIL has. If you want to overclock your processor, you should buy an OEM. It's easier (and cheaper) to buy an OEM and buy a good heatsink/fan (e.g. globalwin) than to buy a retail processor.

wombat: I've got two Celeron 366 PPGA. One is OEM, the other is RETAIL. OEM runs at 550 2.0V ; RETAIL doesn't!!

[mragsdale]

Hi stephan,

With all due respect, OEM are, IN GENERAL, not better overclockers than retail. There have been many studies done on this over the Web. Check overclockers.com, or how about sysopt.com. Retail processors from Intel, on average, overclock better. The reasoning is very simple. According to an insider at Intel, the silicon that becomes your chip comes off wafers, these wafers are round, and the Retail chips are cherry picked off of the wafers, the centers of the good yields become retails, the outers of the good yields become OEM. I am sure that you can get a good overclocking OEM chip, I have....I have an OEM 300a that hums along at 504. I am just saying that your chances are higher that you will get a better overclocker (and a cooler running chip) if you buy the boxed processor.

Rags

[Wombat]

Thanks Matt,
I knew what I was talking about, I just couldn't point to any corroborating reports.

Also, retail isn't always that much more expensive. My neighbor just got a retail PIII 450 for US$2 more than the OEM. Considering that the retail also has a fan/heatsink, that's a good deal.