Should I purchase OEM or Retail O/S ?

[JessieJ]

I'm using my first PC build right now - with the Windows 7 RC as the O/S. My plan was to purchase an O/S after the RC expires which gives me about a year of free usage before having to spend money on the O/S.

It looks like tomorrow - there will be a Windows 7 Pre-order price at half retail price for a retail version. So that puts the Home Premium version around $100 bucks. All arrows are pointing to Windows 7 being about the same price as Vista - which would put the OEM version around $100 bucks when it's finally available for sale ( educated guestimate ).

For those who have built a bunch of PC's ( as this is my first build ). Would you purchase the Retail Version now - or wait a year and purchase the OEM version for about the same price?

Curious which direction I should go and why? As to this PC - I expect to be using it 3-4 years from today as well - as it's an i7 920 build and currently is beyond my PC " NEEDS " for now.

 

[mi1ez]

OEM is cheaper and more customisable but you have to be comfortable creating an autounattend.xml file and know what you're doing to some extent, although if I can do it it can't be that hard!

 

[mikey5802]

Purchase the retail version. Per Microsoft, if you purchase/install an OEM version of the OS, the license expires when the MOBO dies or is replaced. The MOBO info is passed on to MS when you validate and you would NOT be able to validate a re-install on a replacement MOBO.

 

[mi1ez]

I've done it with Vista.