I see that the standard price for Windows 7 Premium is $199 (full version). But some retailers are selling copies for $80 or $90, which makes it much more tempting to try out Boot Camp.
Are such prices too good to be true--pirated or outdated versions? Or is this just standard price variation?
(I'm much more likely to give Boot Camp a whirl at sub-$100 prices than $200.)
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7), mid-2011 i5 iMac
As to reasonable price ... shop around for best. Amazon usually has good prices (except for Snow Loepard disks that they are overcharging for).
There are two versions of "non-update" Windows: OEM and full-retail.
OEM has limited number of installs (3 different systems, I think) before you must beg forgiveness feom MS for too many installs. Full-reatil you can installon a new system everyday without issue.
Systems you buy from Dell or Acer have OEM disks, but they only have drivers for that specific system. Retail-OEM has complete set of hardwre drivers. microcenter.com sells retail-OEM.
I would buy 64-bit Pro, because 64-bit Pro uses 192 GB RAM while 64-bit Home only sees 16 GB RAM (future investment view).
Full-retail I beleieve comes with both 32-bit and 64-bit disks, but the 32-bit would be wasted money in my household.
As to reasonable price ... shop around for best. Amazon usually has good prices (except for Snow Loepard disks that they are overcharging for).
There are two versions of "non-update" Windows: OEM and full-retail.
OEM has limited number of installs (3 different systems, I think) before you must beg forgiveness feom MS for too many installs. Full-reatil you can installon a new system everyday without issue.
Systems you buy from Dell or Acer have OEM disks, but they only have drivers for that specific system. Retail-OEM has complete set of hardwre drivers. microcenter.com sells retail-OEM.
I would buy 64-bit Pro, because 64-bit Pro uses 192 GB RAM while 64-bit Home only sees 16 GB RAM (future investment view).
Full-retail I beleieve comes with both 32-bit and 64-bit disks, but the 32-bit would be wasted money in my household.
To clarify ... OEM is about 1/2 the price of full retail. Just because you can buy only 1 disk dos not mean the Windows 7 version is less capable than its full-retail cousin.
Thanks. Can you clarify what you mean by a "limited number of installs"? I'd be using this only on my iMac, so it sounds like OEM would be fine. Would a clean re-install if something went wrong count against me--or just a reinstall if I bought a new iMac (or other computer lacking an OS)?
(Conversely, what extra rights does the full-retail version get you? I can't imagine you could install it on 100 computers in a small business, for example. Obviously, I'm a bit confused.)
192 GB ram is definitely forward looking!
When the installed OS registers itself with Mother-Microsoft, it records the embedded serial numbers of certain key components (CPU, mainly). Install on a different CPU, and it is a new install. This is because OEM is really meant to save Dell and Gateway and Acer some $$ on an OS copy that is likely never to be installed on any other computer ever because of the technical expertise (or lack thereof) of the target market.
Only a few people actually buy full-device-driver OEM versions for install on multiple CPUs.
The extra rights of full-install is just that you can install that one copy on any number of successive CPUs without penatly. But each Windows 7 copy (thus license) can only be on one machine at a time, unless there is a special arrangement with MS.
CTS wrote:
Thanks. Can you clarify what you mean by a "limited number of installs"? I'd be using this only on my iMac, so it sounds like OEM would be fine. Would a clean re-install if something went wrong count against me--or just a reinstall if I bought a new iMac (or other computer lacking an OS)?
(Conversely, what extra rights does the full-retail version get you? I can't imagine you could install it on 100 computers in a small business, for example. Obviously, I'm a bit confused.)
192 GB ram is definitely forward looking!
You get 1 install only before you're on the phone with MS, Win 7 Home supports a maxima of 16G, Win7 Professional supports 192G. (and costs more). Home also has some networking and remote connectivity limitations.
I thought you had you had 3 installs with the retail-OEM. But I will not argue the point.
steve359 wrote:
I thought you had you had 3 installs with the retail-OEM. But I will not argue the point.
No, it's only one but 2nd and subsequent is simple, just takes a phone call.
Retail is the same FYI, you'll still be calling on the 2nd one, unless a multi user license was part of the package.
Thanks for the info.
Reasonable price for Windows 7?
