OEM ones come without a heatsink/fan. (I'm pretty certain about that.)
OEM CPUs have a one year warranty, rather than 3 years for the boxed ones.
(I'm less certain about this, but I believe it is correct.)
I doubt that the length of warranty is important. I expect that few CPUs
fail in over a year but less than 3. I tend to use aftermarket heatsinks, so
I wouldn't miss the boxed one.
In short, if the OEM version is significantly cheaper, I'd probably go with
it.
The only reason I would buy OEM is if there is a lot a difference in
price or if the retail CPU is unavailable. One example not long ago
was the AMD Athlon 3000+, the retail version was either unavailable
or the cost was outrageous. You know the provided retail heatsink is
going to match the CPU and you can expect that it will work well
enough, since it's approved by the CPU manufacturer. Good luck.
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