South Carolina company creates first wooden case computer

A Greenville company has just unveiled the first commercially produced computer featuring a handcrafted wooden case made from domestically sourced trees.

The Volta V, which is part of Computer Direct Outlet’s Volta line, was designed with the future in mind.

Gary Underwood, the company’s owner, said the idea behind the Volta V came from the company’s mission of sustainability.

“Think about the computer you had 10 years ago: one day it got slow, the plastic faded, parts fell off, it became clogged with dust,” he said.  “We didn’t like that. We asked what if there was a computer that would stay stylish and useful for a decade?”

Volta V is available in solid walnut or bamboo — beneath the toolless magnetic lid, its engineers have selected the latest components to create a computer whose stunning form follows real world function. Each Volta V is handcrafted to display the beauty of its materials. The rich woodgrains ensure each computer is a unique piece of furniture.

The case is a slim 3.9 inches thin and rests on sleek, anodized aluminum legs. It stands 5.5 inches tall, an ideal height, creating the perfect monitor stand for ergonomic viewing. The legs are part of a one-piece anodized aluminum base plate that adds strength to construction. When not in use, your keyboard hides away beneath the machine, creating a compact workspace that stays both attractive and neat.

Each Volta V comes with a lifetime service warranty with optional remote service and on-site service within our service area.

“We’ve designed Volta to keep up with all the ways you change and grow,” Underwood said.

The Volta V is built with power to handle the tough jobs – from CAD programs to engineering to intense gaming — and it’s completely customizable to fit your requirements.

With a combination of liquid cooling, ultra-quiet fans and a unique dust-filtration system, Volta V stays cool under load without throttling and doesn’t accumulate performance-wrecking dust.

Underwood said the company has spent the past 15 months designing, prototyping, perfecting and lining up vendors to make the Volta V ship quickly after preorders begin.

“I believe a business has to add value to the customer experience or it ceases to exist,” he said.

For the past 18 years that philosophy has guided Computer Direct Outlet.

Although the company is known for its team of computer fixers and rebuilders, Underwood has spent the past few years transitioning to manufacturing computers, and the Volta line is garnering reviews in the tech industry.

In 2016, Cadalyst’s J.V. Bolkan categorized the Volta Pro as Highly Recommended, explaining that “every major component in the system is well balanced between high performance and price.”

David Cohn of Desktop Engineering Magazine concluded, the Volta Pro VP1 beat or tied every other single socket workstation that he had tested to date on 21 of 25 tests.