Windows 7 forum: Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium OEM

Technically Neweeg and others that sell OEM software are supposed to sell a piece of sofware with it(Even a cable counts). So this is why most brand names come with the OS already installed. Boutique and barebones companies sell the OS seperately for the user to install themselves sometimes or even without an OS. The difference between retail and OEM is OEM is tied to a motherboard nut microsft has been known to allow the transfer after a MB failure. Retail can be installed on multiple pcs but not used at the same time. Retail you get Micosoft support and OEM your on your own or if a manufacturer install you can get support from them.

Heres a good article

http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2007/01/8730.ars

on a home built. I got my OEM XP from newegg. It came to me for just the price that they advertised. As Buckeye said, OEM is locked on to the first computer that you install it on. I say if you want to live with that OEM restriction, then order and let Newegg worry about if they want to include some very cheap hardware. I just checked, and I see that the pre-order deal ends Oct. 20. I have my pre-order already in.

I'm building my own system as well and did find the price gap between OEM and retail version was too go to be true. The article was great help though i still have a question. If later on i wanna upgrade my system, which is runing a OEM version, to the next generation of MS OS for instance, can i do that? Or i have to prety much live with dat OEM till i the end cosz the restriction? Thank you so much for your help

that offers Windows 7 as OEM. The store is Microcenter whose first store was in my town and now has several around the nation. The display of the OEM packages has a sign stating that this software is designed to be sold only with complete system builds. As such, you could probably buy a bare bones rig and get the OS to install yourself. I purchased an OEM version of XP for my old rig and I bought all the needed hardware but from more than one source. At that time, the understanding was that OEM software needed to be purchased with hardware but what components were required for that purchase was unclear. I remember seeing on line "e-tailers" selling these with a $5.00 hard drive cable and such just to meet the "hardware" requirement. In any event, that's what I read at Microcenter and I suspect that's more in line with what MS desires. Perhaps someone who represents MS and reads these posts can clear this up or offer a link to an explanation.