AIW Radeon; should i buy Retail or OEM?

[Diesel]

I'm going to be getting an AIW Radeon soon... Is there any disadvantage in getting the OEM version instead of retail? Will I miss out on any software? And what about the onboard memory, i hear OEM is lower quality sometimes, is this anything to worry about? This is the FINAL decision i have to make for my new box! woohoo! thanks for all of yalls help over all these months!!!!!!!!

- Brian

 

[Guest]

I know the OEM Radeon DDRs have slower DDR ram 164 vs 183 base clock. But I don't know if it is the same way for the AIW. Sorry not much help but can't wait to hear about your new system.

BTW I bought an OEM Radeon 64DDR for $189 - and got all the cables plus the 183mhz card so you can get lucky

At bus stations, busses stop. At train stations, trains stop. My desk has a work station. GO FIGURE!

 

[bw37]

I just purchased a retail AIW from newegg.com ("free shipping"). If I remember correctly, I didn't find too many OEM AIW's available, but I may just not recall. I did notice that you could get the 64DDR VIVO either OEM or retail quite a few places, and that the price was not much different between them. I believe ALL the AIW Radeon's have the slower, 166mhz clock (vs 183 on retail 64DDR's). I haven't yet tried all the software; editing, Merlin VR: 3D animation?, TV programming guide, etc., that came with the AIW retail. There are no games, just apps. that support the TV and VIVO capabilities of the card. To use the VIVO, you MUST have the proprietary cables to hook up the video in and out's. You can't hook up directly to the card with plain, Radio Shlock cables. Personally I'd get the retail (actually I did!) to make sure you get everything you need to fully utilize the card's features.

If you do go OEM, make sure you KNOW what you're getting.

The software (drivers, DVD player, TV, video capture) that came with my card worked "out of the box" in a clean Win98SE install. Win2k is still a struggle at best, but I'm hoping ATI will get it right eventually. Lot's of discussion on latest w2k driver problems at rage3d.com (I've got 100% CPU usage on video capture in w2k, 20-30% usage in 98, go figure).

Good luck,

BW

the more I learn, the less I'm sure I know...

 

[Guest]

never by OEM if you can afford it!!! period

Best regards
cx5