Hey. I was wondering what youz allz felt about say me getting a 754 3700 clawhammer in a box vs oem.

the price difference is 100 dollars solid. 160 vs 260.

Normally, for a 20 dollar difference, I think its a waste to go for the 90 day warranty vs the great 3 year plus garauntee of new in a box.

But, 160 dollars for an old socket, making this system compete well with the big boys that are out now, that seems to be a great solution. I know for a fact that that chip is still considered a high end performer for games. I like my board, abit kv8 pro, i have 2 gigs for ram in it, its kinda pimped out. I want to complete it now.... but not at 260 if its of no use in reality.

i havent ever fried a chip yet and if i do, I dont think id try sending it back. What I want is for the processor to be the real mccoy, can I figure that out from an OEM sale?

If it's not the right processor can't you take it back anyway? I don't see how it would be much different from getting a retail box in terms of getting the right item.

As far as the warranty goes, it's been said in this thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=24667 that if you don't use the boxed cooler it cancels the warranty on CPU anyway. I'm supposing that you're going to put on a good heatsink to cool such a processor down.
For the worries of it being the real thing I think it depends more on the shop you're buying it from than it being an OEM version or not.

~El~Jefe~: You know what you're doing, go OEM.

Do you really think you'd get so much more out of a 3700+? You already know what i think, overclock the one you have just to see how much difference you see in performance. If you like it then go and buy a new one, and if you don't then you have saved $160. I know what you think, it's not worth the time. I know for sure that it wouldn't take you two days, more like 30 minutes or less. Anyway, good luck!

Glad to see that Ricky Martin is more popular than Intel.

excellent. party on.


well, I'll buy that sucker this week. For 170 or less dollars, i get 2.4 with 1 meg cache.

it has a higher bench in all games than a 3.73 Extreme edition intel. i'd say thats neat.

The only other reason I am hesitant is for socket M2. what is it? who cares? will it matter much?

M2? In short, revision F, DDR2, and later on 65 nm.

I used to care but now I don't think it would make any big difference.
Only reason is FUTURE PROOFNESS (Gosh ), you might be able to swap in a 65 nm CPU later on. Yeah.

Matter? Well, since K8 seems to benefit more from low latencies (DDR) rather than speed (DDR2) it's a bit hard to see the positive about it. Maybe DDR2 latencies suddently drops, who knows.

But if you hang on to your old CPU you can always buy an ULI 1695 mobo later with socket M2 and still use AGP. Just wait six months, or so, Q1 "they" say.

party on

I voted retail since OEM is rare to non existant in Australia.

However AMD is getting rid of the OEM market, you cant make new orders so people are just clearing old stock. Soon no one will have a choice.

yes indeed no choices.

strange how the new cores cost the same about oem or retail boxed.

i think it is just price fixing and such rather than it being a real, congruent to cost reality occurence.

still, I agree now that I should get the oem jobby.

The funny thing is:
if i go uli new asrock board, which is the best spcr board and best board in general in my opinion, I have to buy a new processor. I do NOT want to buy a 3800. Why? someoen may ask me? well, to be honest, I think that a 3700 clawhammer would beat in a game. the 3700 754 chip when pitted against some 939 options or say a p4 extreme edition 3.73 ghz chip, wipes the floor with them.


i wonder how it stacks compared to 3800. I would love a 4400. to me thats where it's at. but i cant afford the whole change.