The Hong Kong-based company is one of 20 board partners for graphics card maker Nvidia, but is currently ranked in the top eight.

However, being one of the few companies with its own manufacturing capacity ­ it has a factory in China ­ the company has claimed it has greater control over its supply chain. This means it is able to offer longer warranties ­ which should boost confidence in the product, translating into sales ­ argued UK-based sales manager for Europe, Darren Roberts.

“A five-year warranty means our partners can offer the same peace of mind to their customers,” he said.
“This will be very important to us because we want to establish ourselves as the high-end brand of this market. We have had good results in independent lab tests. Now we have to build on that confidence.”

To qualify for the extended warranty, customers must register their cards and motherboards with Zotac within 14 days of purchase. After the standard two-year warranty expires, Zotac will offer an extended warranty of three additional years direct to the customer.

If the card fails within this extended time period, the customer should return it to Zotac, not the distributor, provided it has not been damaged or registered with a previous customer.

Zotac has two distributors in the UK ­ Realtime and Centerprise. “Less is definitely more in this market at the moment. The last thing we need is to be over distributed with our partners competing against each other,” said Roberts. “Although we might consider one more if the opportunity ever came up.”
In the meantime, the channel should make hay while the sun shines, said Julie Darrington, purchasing director at Realtime.

“This extended warranty gives our resellers a great chance to add value to their graphics card sales at no extra cost to themselves,” she said.