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We Specialize in OEM Products!

"Best value available on the Web. Found it very easy to order what I wanted and I wasn't slammed with a ridiculous shipping charge like a lot of the on-line retailers. My purchased was 35% less than anywhere else I could find it on the web. A word of advise to anyone reading this...Don't be afraid of OEM products,they are the best values you'll ever get. I would never pay for pretty packaging if I didn't have to." --Bill W., Jacksonville, FL

What's OEM? What does OEM mean?

OEM generally means "original equipment manufacturer." Sometimes it is referred to as "open-ended market" and used interchangeably with "bulk-pack," "white box," "brown box," and "gray market."

Almost all PC component and software vendors make two versions of the same product based on a difference in the distribution channels.

One is the retail-boxed products that are sold mainly through retailers (the big stores). Guess who is paying for the nice-looking packages which cost vendors extra material and labor to produce (and adds to the world's pollution problem)? Retail packages also takes up more space and costs more to ship.

The second one is the OEM products which are sold mainly to system builders--large ones such as HP and Dell (the OEMs) and many smaller ones such as the mom-and-pop shops and DIY builders. These bulk-pack products do not have fancy packaging materials and are often produced in much higher volume, both of which result in much lower prices that have not been available to the public. The OEM products are of the same quality and often carry the same manufacturer warranty as their retail counterparts (the single-pack). They also often include supporting materials such as manuals and drivers when applicable.

So in short, are you willing to save up to 35% and not have the box? Or do you want to pay for the pretty packaging that ends up in the trash anyway?

Whenever we can, Directron.com distributes and sells the OEM versions for products such as microprocessors, memory, network cards, hard drives, and video cards, letting end-users and customers share the low cost. Finally, OEM quality and prices for the "little guys!"

Besides the packaging and prices, there are sometimes other subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the retail and OEM versions of a product. Here are a few examples:

Bundled Software: Sometimes the retailed version comes with bundled applications software, which the OEM version may not. This is especially true for high-end video and audio cards. The usefulness of the bundled software, however, is often questionable.

Manual and Support: The hard-copy manual for the OEM version may be limited to one per shipping box. However, most of the information is on a CD or on manufacturer's web site. Some manufacturers claim that they do not support their own OEM products. The OEMs are supposed to do the support. In such cases, Directron.com will provide the technical support.

Warranty: Most OEM hardware components come with the same warranty as retail boxed ones. One well-known exception is microprocessors. The retail boxed processors often come with three-year warranty while the OEM ones come with a much shorter one, typically 30 days for Intel and 90 days for AMD. Please check the product page for Limited Warranty information where applicable. We believe the extremely low failure rates of microprocessors justifies the difference in the warranty.

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