NVIDIA today announced that it expects revenue for the fourth quarter ending Jan. 29, 2012, to be lower than the company's previous outlook, saying it has been hit by a shortage of hard drives. Revenue is now expected to be $950 million, plus or minus 1 percent, compared with original expectations of $1,066 million, plus or minus 2 percent, provided on Nov. 10, 2011.

Nvidia said that the global disk-drive shortage caused by the flooding in Thailand had more impact on the mainstream GPU segment than anticipated. Shipments by some PC OEMs were reduced. And the higher prices of disk-drives constrained some PC OEMs' ability to include a GPU in their systems.

Additionally, Nvidia's Tegra 2 mobile business declined more rapidly than expected, ahead of devices based on the Tegra 3 processor ramping into production in the first quarter of calendar-year 2012.

Intel and AMD have also warned that the shortage, expected to last through the first half of 2012, would hurt their sales.

Western Digital said on Monday it expects to recover to 60 percent normal production in the current quarter, 80 percent in the June quarter and be back to normal by the start of the September quarter.