im thinking about buying this sound card i looked at it in amazon it was over 100bucks so I searched on newegg and found 2 the retail 1 and the oem the only difference i found was "This item is an open box item, and bears a limited 15-day return policy through Newegg.com " and the oem is 86bucks and the retail is 121 bucks so am i being charged 35bucks for the box?
Yes, and the fact that someone already used it and they won't hold the guarantee as if it were retail.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacture. OEM products are just the hardware. For instance when you buy an OEM hardrive you just get the hard drive. No cables, no instructions, and no box. OEM usually have a shorter warranty compared to retail. OEM is not a used product. So the OEM soundcard is just the card and drivers and nothing else.
Refurbished = Went wrong, sent back to the manufacturer, manufacturer has now "repaired" it and are re-selling it. I avoid those, half the time they weren't fixed properly. Why do you want an X-FI sound card? My Audigy 4 produces almost the same audio quality, and costs a fifth as much. It's also compatible with more programs than an X-FI, the only reasonit costs so much is that it has a very fast CPU for running programs like FLStudio, so unless you publish music, get a normal Sound card.
