Tech Data, Computer 2000's parent company, has extended its drive into the components arena by announcing a pan-European distribution agreement with components giant Asus. This is one of the biggest components alliances for the distributor, which has been actively targeting system builders and components resellers throughout 2004.

Tech Data will now distribute the majority of Asus products, from motherboards to graphics cards, in the UK, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The deal will also see Computer 2000 take onboard Asus's notebooks, which it will offer to UK system builders.

"Tech Data offers system builders the products and services that best position them to capitalise on the demand for custom systems, servers and notebooks," said Sven Mahon-Daly, commercial director of components for Tech Data's centralised components division.

"The addition of Asus provides resellers with greater flexibility when creating and deploying a range of component and systems solutions."

Eric Chen, general manager of Euro-pean sales and marketing for Asus, said: "Tech Data's logistics expertise and broad reseller network makes it easier for our customers to get our products when and where they need them.

"This agreement helps us streamline our European operations, while ensuring that we remain competitive and able to offer the highest levels of service, performance and quality."

Tech Data's decision to offer notebooks to system builders will see it go head to head with Microtronica which launched a customised notebook manufacturing service for system builders just over a year ago.

Asus has just announced its A6000 notebook with an in-built web camera for video communications. The notebook will come in at £1,000-£1,500 depending on specification. At the top end it will be powered by a Pentium M 765 processor, sport 1GB of memory, an 80GB hard disk drive, 15.4in WXGA display and wireless LAN card.