Newegg on Tuesday posted pricing for OEMs versions of Microsoft's much-hyped upcoming Windows 7 operating systems. The pricing shows around a 50% difference between retail and OEM pricing for full (not upgrade) versions, bringing the full software below the price of an upgrade version.
This is OEM software, however, so there are a bunch of caveats. First, it's supposed to be sold for pre-installation on a new personal computer for resale. The system builder is supposed to provide tech support. That means, if you install it yourself, you can't get any support from Microsoft.
The license does not allow transferring the operating system from one PC to another. That doesn't mean you can't do it, but it does mean that technically you can't do so legally (and you'd probably have to call for re-activation as well).
You have to do a full install as well. There are no upgrade versions. Personally, I prefer a full, clean install anyway, but that's just me. It would mean having to restore all the programs and data that were loaded on the computer, but that's not a big deal for many (just time-consuming).
Also, the OEM versions do not supply both 32- and 64-bit versions on the DVD. They only supply one of them, which is, once again, not really that big a deal.
Here's a pricing comparison:
Windows 7 Home Premium
Upgrade: $120
Full: $200
OEM Full: $110
Windows 7 Professional
Upgrade: $200
Full: $300
OEM Full: $140
Windows 7 Ultimate
Upgrade: $220
Full: $320
OEM Full: $190
To make things still better, Newegg is offering pre-order discounts of from $5 to $15 until Oct. 20th.