Worth buying OEM Motherboard?

[GN]

Im just wondering if i'd be better off buying an OEM motherboard, instead of a Retail one? I can get the OEM version for half the price of the retail. From what I read, it just comes without the box, cables and all that, is that right?

 

[GN]

anyone?

 

[yankeesfan]

i wouldn't get the oem one. But, then again, you may have everything you need already.

 

[GN]

The only thing I'd need to get would be an IDE signal cable, floppy disk signal cable, and a cd-rom signal cable right? Heres the link for the quick setup guide.

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/m...de/k8/e1712_k8_qsg.pdf

 

[DaveSimmons]

Half the price?

At newegg.com the price difference is often more like $5-10, and the retail version includes extra parts, better support, and a much longer warranty.

(edit) oh yeah, the Great White North. search "Canada" in archived threads for decent Canadian parts vendors, sounds like yours is not decent.

 

[GN]

Well yeah im from Canada, I shop at bestbyte computers and it has one of the lowest prices in Toronto. They have the board for $161 cdn, Canadacomputers, and PCC both have it for $154 cdn. I can buy it from the US for $89 cdn, and get it shipped for $15 US, but the only difference is that its OEM. So to me it sounds like a good deal.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Same warranty? Many OEM products come with 30-90 day warranty instead of 1-3 years for retail.

 

[GN]

It says it comes with a 30 day non-DOA warranty.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Hmm, $109 cdn shipped from the US, but with no cables or real warranty.

Does the US company have a good rating at www.resellerratings.com ? Many of the lowest-price companies offer poor service if you have a problem.

 

[GN]

Im actually buying it off Ebay

 

[DaveSimmons]

I will provide a phone number upon request so that you can acquire the I/O shield from Asus for free at the end of the auction.

I wonder if Asus will charge shipping even if the part is free?

This seems like a good price, and the vendor looks as safe as you'll get from eBay. Saving 1/3 (before cables cost) might be worth having to wait for the I/O shield from Asus and going without a real warranty.

 

[GN]

Thanks for the help man!

Just one more question. I would only need to buy an IDE signal cable, a floppy disk signal cable, and a cd-rom signal cable right? I dont use a SATA drive, and I only got 1 hd and 1 cdrom.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You need the floppy cable and and 1 80-pin (also known as ATA/100 or ATA/133) IDE cable, and they do not need to be Asus brand since they are standardized.

You might need the CD audio cable, but games don't use it and Windows Media Player can play music CDs using digital audio extraction (over the IDE cable) so that is optional. This cable is standardized too.

 

[GN]

Thanks for all the help man, really appriciate it.