On 27 Aug 98 at 18:34, Tom LaMotta wrote:

> I'm trying to make a decision as to whether I should purchase a
> 'retail boxed' or 'oem' PII 400 processor. From what I gather, if I
> purchase the oem I'd be giving up the included heatsink/fan, cert.
> of authenticity and 3 yr. warranty.

> I'm inclined to go for the boxed version and have the peace of mind
> of the warranty since the oem's usually carry only 30 days,

  I believe Intel warrants the OEM version for a year.  I've dealt
with retailers who only accepted exchange within 15 days, and ones
that were willing to provide three years evn if only one was backed
by Intel.

> but the price difference is quite significant.

  The cooling apparatus included with the boxed version has generally
been above average.  In our case, we evaluated OEM cpus, but found
that installing a separate fan/heatsink unit was both time-consuming
and a bit challenging.  [Half our eval units were found, on
inspection, to have their coolers not properly seated, greatly
impairing their effectiveness.]

  I'm not insensitive to the price difference -- I believe that's why
it was a bit hard to locate a loacl supplier of boxed CPUs.  Most are
afraid that the guy down the street, selling OEM versions, will steal
all their business because his prices *appear* to be lower.
  For our corporate project, though, the price difference was a
sensible investment choice.

David G