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Comment by Puts | Hacker News Reader

I think anyone complaining about the price is missing something. Anything produced in small quantities will be expensive and I wouldn’t even assume they themselves thinks this product is gonna be profitable. I suspect a lot of the projects TE puts out is more about showcasing their design language to then be able to do collaborations with other brands like IKEA who can take a product to a broader market.

In other words their products are like business cards sold to a niche category of people who like products that look like a collaboration between Dieter Rams and Simone Giertz.

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This isn't an injection molded part or something with electronic components. There aren't even any fans included.

Laser/water jet cutting metal and powder coating it is so common that you can submit such an order online and have it in a day.

What I am trying to say is that the cost because of small quantities does not apply here. This is just the cost of the brand.

And the cost of the design, which you’re pricing at $0.

Personally I thought it was cool and if I were in the market to build a PC I’d consider it.

Actually a laser or waterjet has to pierce all those arrays of holes and slots, which take time, which is what you charge for. Plus deburring and powdercoating. At only 1mm thick the pierces will go fast, but prices will not be cheap until you're punching out low thousands on a CNC turret punch. Source: I own and operate a waterjet and frequently design similar parts.

I get what you're saying. But as a consumer, I don't care what the production costs. I care what the product itself costs and what I'm getting out of it vs what similar products cost and what I get out of those.

Exactly. The PC case market is actually really competitive these days. It seems like new high quality cases at a good cost are coming out on a monthly basis at this point. Teenage Engineering makes cool stuff and this case looks nice, but I don't think I would ever spend this kind of money on a case.

Well, maybe you as a consumer can value the effort this guy made and pay it. I mean, not every one of your consumer decisions has to be based on the lowest price possible.

The people buying Mini-ITX cases for custom PC builds are typically hobbyists, and the value they derive from these cases (which are expensive across the board, it's a niche low-volume market) is not the same value you or I get from buying a (relatively) cheap ATX tower and throwing whatever parts into it. If you go looking for "similar products", I guarantee that you will find some very expensive cases indeed.

Not every product is for every consumer. This case is already sold out, so apparently somebody wants it.

My Phanteks Evolv Shift Air 2 mini-ITX case was about 120 € (with one 140 mm fan) and I don't think it was that expensive. And it looks really nice + fits beefier components.

The Evolv Shift Air 2 is a cool case, but (as you say) it is on the large side for Mini-ITX cases and therefore likely has much more mass appeal, since the smaller a case is the more difficult (and rewarding for hobbyists/enthusiasts) it will be to spec out components that fit and have adequate cooling.

Just comparing it to some other popular Mini-ITX cases, 23 liters for the Evolv Shift Air 2 is nearly twice the volume of the NZXT H1 (13 liters), and far in excess of the Dan 4 (7 liters) or the Velka 5 (5 liters). Especially the latter two cases are extremely challenging to build in, and at 8.5 liters the "computer-1" is arguably most comparable to that segment despite its GPU length limitations. It's not a put-whatever-you-want-in-it case, and that makes it a niche offering.

I'm not going to argue that there's no TE tax attached here, especially since (unlike similar cases) it doesn't include a PCIe riser or other electronic components, but it's not way out of range for its market segment.

Also value-oriented builders probably wouldn't want to use the ITX form factor given they're always more expensive than mATX with a on-par feature set at best. ITX builders likely are not price conscious.

mATX cases can also be quite small (e.g. Fractal Node Define 7) but you get 2 more RAM slots, can use ATX PSU, and can get bigger coolers so not have to resort to price AIO.

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