OEM or Retail CPU for the first timer?

winglesslight

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Feb 10, 2001
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Hi,
I understand Retail CPU comes with manual and heatsink and fan and long warranty. OEM is cheap. I am thinking of building Athlon PC as posted in tomshardware guide. I am the first timer to build PC.
I want to choose between OEM and Retail CPU. So there are some points I need to know.

I understand many people says warranty is probably needless.

Do I need manual for Altholon socket A CPU? or I just plug it into socket A?

Do heatsink and fan coming with Retail Athlon 800Mhz good enough for CPU overclocked to 1GHz? Or do I have to buy swifttech heatsink and fan anyway for overclocking?

For overclocking all documents I need is motherboard manual not CPU manual, is that right?

Anyone wanna recommend reliable and cheap component website store?
 

cellbiogeek

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Once you get the CPU on your board and running you won't need to worry about a warranty. The OEM warranty should last long enough. Yes, you will only need the manual for your motherboard not for your CPU. For OC you could also use a GlobalWin FOP-38 (or FOP-32 if you can't take the noise) and use thermal paste (Arctic Silver), not the pad that comes on the bottom of the heat sink. For retailers, check pricewatch.com for prices, then go to resellerratings.com to check the ratings on the retailer (read the comments, since this may be more informative than just the rating).
 

winglesslight

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Hi, thanks for your help.
Does it mean I have to remove the bottom pad from heatsink?

Is FOP-32 good enough to overclock Athlon900 or 1Ghz ?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by winglesslight on 02/17/01 11:14 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

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