What is the meaning of OEM?
The abbreviation OEM is in a lot of our news and we understand that many of you are wondering what it means.
Let’s just say it’s not just a tech term, it’s about the type of product we’re dealing with. You will see OEMs in the automotive industry to identify the authenticity of a product or know where it came from. Undoubtedly, these are abbreviations of great importance, so we will cover everything related to it.
What does OEM mean in computing?
OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, which stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. The place we see most in the technology industry is hardware, a term used for relationships between suppliers, manufacturers and distributors.
Let’s say there is a kind of “subcontractor” relationship between the manufacturer and the installer because these are products that are usually sold disassembled (parts or components). The idea of OEM comes from a company developing their product and then reselling it to another brand, but it has evolved over the years.
On our site you will see a lot of news about video cards or OEM processors, what does it mean? Is the processor we bought from Amazon or Hepsiburada not original? The two have nothing to do with each other.
OEM graphics cards are those that cannot be bought in any store: they come pre-installed on the PC and can only be used if we buy all the equipment pre-assembled. They don’t usually stand out for having great features, they even tend to offer fewer frequencies than many specialty models.
But we can find OEM GPUs that are not sold separately, why? It will be necessary to look at a large number of factors: brands, suppliers, contracts between distributors and a long time etc. What should be clear to you is that they are usually not very interesting products for retail sale as there are already more interesting alternatives on the market or they don’t have that much potential.
For example, the Ryzen 9 5900 and Ryzen 7 5800 are OEM-specific processors, but we’ve also seen this with some Radeon GPUs (RX 6400 and 6300). And if you’re wondering if it’s just AMD doing it, we answer that it’s not because we’ve seen it in Intel (i9-9900XE).
Is it a bad product? Not at all, you can get more profit if you only sell wholesale. Rappels are purchase discounts that exist in the commercial space for companies that buy in large quantities and make the product unit cheaper.
What are OEM products for?
There is a problem with OEM licenses: they are attached to the PC and cannot be used on another computer. This is the first reason they are cheaper than retail licenses and can be revoked when updating some components of the computer.
As such, they differ from other components or parts purchased at retail in that they are planned and configured for a particular ecosystem (chosen by the brand). However, we understand that there are questions that need to be answered.
Can an OEM component be used on any computer? Yes, as long as the brand (AMD, NVIDIA or Intel) provides the drivers. What happens if I replace a component on an OEM PC? First, unless the brand makes exceptions, you forfeit any warranty (if any) to open the PC case. Secondly, when replacing this component, there may be a problem with the Windows license as it thinks it is being used on another computer. Finally, incompatibilities can arise if we don’t do things right.
What should I do if I want to upgrade parts on my OEM computer? Look for component compatibility in your PC brand. Here we refer to brands that work with Windows, such as Mac: check out which packages are most compatible with your computer. How can purchasing a gaming PC with OEM parts benefit the user? It comes at a lower price than if we bought the PC piecemeal. This will depend on the price and features of the PC, as well as the equivalent price of parts. You will find more expensive gaming PCs than we assemble ourselves, but there is always a bargain on the market.
What is the difference between ODM, Retail or OEM?
These are some of the many terms that confuse the consumer, but you will know them perfectly after reading this guide. That way, you’ll know what it means when you read the articles that refer to them or buy a new device or software license.
As for the terms used to denote purely types of products, OEM, Retail etc. Some of them have different prices in the market and differences in what they contain, so you should be aware of their differences and not mind the confusion.
OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
OEM means the designer and manufacturer of a product and they sell directly to other wholesalers or companies. This makes devices cheaper, but at a lower cost, they contain nothing more than the device itself or the service/software as this can also apply to licenses and the like. In most cases, they come in very primitive packaging or multi-unit boxes.
Retail
As an alternative to OEM, most users buy a retail product when they buy a new product, i.e. in a higher quality box/packaging and with manual, drivers, screws, required connecting cables, in some cases batteries etc. It comes with some extras such as So for a little more you can get a more complete product. Just like OEM, it can be applied to both HW and SW.
Volume or GVLK
It stands for Generic Volume License Keys and is a license type that refers to the software. This type of software distribution allows large companies or organizations to install an operating system or proprietary application on dozens or hundreds of computers at their disposal. So, it’s known as a kind of “stack” in the software world. This allows costs to be significantly lower than the other alternative by purchasing a unit license or several units.