Greetings, all. Need to purchase some Windows 7 Pro x64 licenses, and was wondering what my best bet is.
Option 1: Buy a retail license. There are still a few available here and there, but time is running out. Plan on spending over 300 USD. [!] This may be the best option, because then I can re-install it on a different machine if I want to.
Option 2: Buy an OEM copy from a legitimate retailer, such as Walmart [yes, they have it]. Plan on spending around 200 USD. This seems pricey for an OEM license.
Option 3: Buy an OEM copy from one of the many Ebay or Amazon sellers that offer it. Plan on spending anywhere from 5 USD [MUST be bogus] up to around 50-60 USD [MAY be bogus]. Other people's experience doing this varies widely. Some people report getting a legit copy, others get counterfeit bunk. Supposedly, a lot of these are from people [illegally] selling off bulk license keys from an enterprise package, which will probably be flagged by MS at some point after you install it.
Buying a legit OEM disk will save around 100 bucks per license over retail, but if the smoke leaks out of the machine you install it on, you are SOL. Many people claim in online forums that MS was willing to re-cert an OEM license after an mboard replacement, but I am not sure I can count on that.
What do you folks buy when building a Win 7 box?
Jim
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