So it's the worst slump in the IT market for maybe a decade and still there are shortages.

Pentium 4 chips and DVD drives are in short supply, UK system builders and disties are reporting.

The shortages are by no means uniform though, with Tiny Computers and Mesh both saying they had no problems with their supply of either P4s or DVD drives. But they appear to be the lucky ones

Mark Reed, S&M director at Realtime Distribution, the Cambridgeshire wholesaler of PC components, told us that the higher the clock frequency, the harder it was to source chips, with 1.1 and 1.2GHz chips being relatively easy to obtain. Some system builders were reducing motherboard, graphics card and hard drive orders in line with the lack of chips, he added.

But it could be worse: "Business has been good, but we could have sold more if there had been stock," he said.

Demetre Cheras, marketing director at system builder Hi-Grade, said the company had "anticipated the shortage and made provisional arrangements"

He added that there was a definite DVD drive shortage, commenting that Hi-Grade was "just coping, and everyone is on allocation". ®