OEM Vs. Retail

That's just... WIERD. If the retail is cheaper, buy the retail. It buys you more warranty time as well as the HSF. The chip will be the same.

-Sean

Yep. The chip's the same. Retail's usually more expensive than OEM because it comes with a bit more goodies.

Thats messed up man, get the retail one as it comes with the warranty and its cheaper. There is no diff between them.

get the retail, and if you dont use the heatsink cut it up into smaller coolers for chipset, mosfets, memory....u name it!

That is a little odd indeed. You may want to give them a shout and see if perhaps the stepping is better on the OEM's.

One thought it may have to due the Opteron's being intended for server use, and not being slapped in a desktop and overclocked like crazy. You can get a 3 year warranty at Monarch for $15. Maybe this is Monarch's way of saying buy the retail and do what you want, we do not want the liability. Opteron's are not completely compatible with all socket 939's and they may have had a mass influx of RMA's.

Who knows? It may be worth checking to see if the stepping is better or something of that sort.

Looks like the price really comes down about 10+% if you buy it with another piece of hardware like a mobo, which is then about $30-40 cheaper than retail.

with the retail you get a better warranty and a stock heatsink/fan with it

OEM is cheaper, which is basically the only plus, but you'll often get better steppings with OEM cpu's after the good steppings have already been seeded out in retail channels

i'm surprised that the OEM is more expensive then retail. i'd take the retail if those prices are right. 3 year warranty, plus a decent HSF.

Ok my next question is what is the best stepping for the 170 and also for the 175 if they are different. I would like to get the 175 if prices drop by the time I order it. Thanks.

anyone?

I think about the only stepping that people have encountered thus far is CCBWE for the 170 and 175. On another oc forum the overclock ranged from 2500 to 2970MHz for about a dozen members that had it. Seems like the 170's might overclock better, but not as many people have the 175 and perhaps they are not as aggresive with their overclocking as the 170 owners. Hope this helps.