{"id":85200,"date":"2025-08-15T16:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85200\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:53:08","slug":"teenage-engineering-has-a-new-pc-case-as-usual-you-wont-believe-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85200\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage Engineering Has a New PC Case. As Usual, You Won’t Believe the Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teenage Engineering, makers of fine and fun devices like the popular OP-1 field synthesizer<\/a> and Pocket Operator music mixers<\/a>, dropped a new PC case yesterday, and it immediately sold out. But unlike gear like the OP-1 field or TP-7 audio recorder<\/a> that sell for eye-watering prices of $2,000 and $1,500, respectively, the translucent and plastic Computer-2 desktop PC case was given away for free. Well, sort of\u2014you just have to pay for shipping. \u201cThe computer case you can\u2019t buy,\u201d reads the Computer-2\u2019s product page<\/a>. \u201cCause it\u2019s free.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Computer-2 is the successor to Teenage Engineering\u2019s first PC case, the Computer-1, which was released in October 2021. The Computer-1\u2019s whole gimmick was its IKEA-esque, flat-pack design<\/a>, which required bending its distinctive orange-colored sheets of aluminum into a mini-ITX desktop PC. The new Computer-2 is still a mini-ITX build, but replaces the metal with \u201csemi-transparent PP-plastic\u201d that Teenage Engineering says is \u201cmolded in one plastic sheet.\u201d It also features \u201cliving hinges and snap hooks.\u201d You can check out the assembly guide here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Teenage\u00a9 Teenage Engineering <\/p>\n

As an owner of Computer 1, I can tell you firsthand that getting into the PC case is an extremely inconvenient and time-consuming process that requires removing too many damn screws each and every time you want to open up its side panel. And you will have to crack the Computer-1 open often because every component is packed in so tightly, the slightest movement from grabbing the PC by its handles can knock the fragile wiring for essential stuff like the power switch connection or the Wi-Fi module out of place.<\/p>\n

The Computer-2 at least looks to be easier to get into. Teenage Engineering even says a compatible motherboard can be push-clicked into the case without requiring any screws.<\/p>\n

It being an SFF PC case that\u2019s roughly 9.2L if the dimensions are similar to the Computer-1, the Computer-2 still supports limited PC hardware. In addition to the mini-ITX motherboard and an SFX power supply, the SFF PC only works with dual-slot GPUs that are 180mm in length. These short GPUs severely limit the power\u2014especially for gaming or AI workflows\u2014that many people now demand from a desktop PC. You won\u2019t be slotting in an Nvidia RTX 5090<\/a> or an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT<\/a> graphics card into the Computer-2, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

\"Teenage\u00a9 Teenage Engineering <\/p>\n

One of the biggest concerns I have\u2014and continue to have\u2014with the Computer 1 is its air flow, or lack thereof. With so little room, even with a slim 80mm fan mounted on its side panel, the interior of the SFF PC is such a rat\u2019s nest of wires that, even if you tried, you may not be able to cable manage or have enough space for better cooling. It\u2019s unlikely the Computer-2 will have improvements, but I won\u2019t know until I get one, will I? You will get better airflow if you don\u2019t install a discrete GPU, though; it\u2019s just physics when there\u2019s nothing where the graphics card sits.<\/p>\n

Still, you can\u2019t argue that Teenage Engineering\u2019s second stab at an SFF PC case isn\u2019t a looker. It\u2019s a statement piece PC case that trades function for form. Transparent and translucent gadgets like Nothing\u2019s Headphone 1<\/a> are back, baby, and I hope they never phase out ever again.<\/p>\n

The bad news is that the Computer-2 is \u201csold out\u201d because it was given away for free. Teenage Engineering\u2019s website now points interested customers to enter their email address to be notified when it\u2019s back in stock. I know I\u2019m not the only one who would love for Teenage Engineering to release 3D-printable files for the Computer-2. Why the hell not, since it\u2019s already \u201cfree,\u201d anyway?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teenage Engineering, makers of fine and fun devices like the popular OP-1 field synthesizer and Pocket Operator music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[59023,2210,74,59024],"class_list":["post-85200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-desktops","tag-pc","tag-technology","tag-teenage-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}