OEM vs Retail, Palamino?

[Vladimer]

I am building a computer from scratch and just getting started. What is the practical difference between OEM vs. retail in box for CPUs?

I am pretty much sold on an Athlon XP cpu, other than price, anything critical to know about 1700 vs. 1900 vs. 2100? And why are some listed as Palamino?

Thanks,

Vlad :confused:

[Ape0r]

Retail:
Cheapo Heatsink
3 year warranty
Higher price

OEM:
No heatsink
15-30 day warranty unless otherwise said by reseller
Lower price

Palomino:
Based on .18 micron technology, more heat due to larger die size and higher core voltage

Thoroghbred:
Based on .13 micron technology, less heat due to smaller die size, although smaller die offers lesser abilities in terms of heat disappation, has lower core voltage.

You will see absolutely no preformance difference between a 1900+ Palomino and T-Bred.

[grimfandango]

Hi and welcome to sysopt!
:t


The difference between the Oem and retail version is that In the retail version you get 3years warranty
In the Om you get only 15 to 90 days!

IN the retail version you a heatsink and fan with it!
Oem no heat sink no fan. you will have to buy them separately.

well all XP upto 2100+ are palmino based core.. that is they are build on a 0.18 micron.
the newer 2200+ are Thoroughbred these are based on 0.13 micron

The OEM version is good enough as long as you get a good heatsink and fan!

:t

[grimfandango]

LOL!!! I was typin !!while you posted!!
:eek: :)

[Vladimer]

Many thanks!

I assume I would want to go with OEM in order to get a quality heat sink/fan anyway, right? Any suggestions along those lines?

Is the jump up from palamino to the 2200+ going to open up any critical avenues in 6 months that aren't available to the palaminos? Anything like the max ram speed or type in terms of compatability? I guess what I am getting at is whether there is anything about the T-bred worth the bump in price other than the .13 micron which might bite me in teh **** a short ways down the road?

Vlad

p.s. thank you for the welcome!

[Ape0r]

Never, ever buy the fastest chip you can get. It is simply foolish. Here (http://www.tcwo.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?catid=273&sid=1gi2Ty0WO0X56Df), we see the 2200+ for $210. The 2000+ is just $126 and only 140 MHz slower. You will notice almost no performance difference between the two chips. I have a 1900+, which I paid $115 for after killing my 1600+ in a little unlocking mishap ;). In a few months AMD will release the Barton core, a revamped Athlon XP that will have 512k L2 cache, seen below:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/styleone/roadmap060502.gif

In a few more months AMD is releasing a whole new platform, the Clawhammer. The Barton is supposedly going to be
significantly faster than the T-Bred due to it's large L2 cache. I'm waiting for the Clawhammer for my next upgrade.

BTW go OEM unless you aren't sure you can properly install and maintain your system. Both my XP chips have been OEM.