Check out the Volta V, a high-end PC in a handcrafted wooden case

midian182

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Many decades ago, electrical products such as TVs and audio systems often contained large amounts of wood in their construction. Metal and plastic builds eventually became more popular, but Computer Direct Outlet has taken inspiration from that retro wood style with the Volta V, a PC that comes in a handcrafted wooden case.

Modders have been putting PCs into all sorts of weird and wonderful cases over the years, but the Volta V is the first of its kind to be commercially available. And don’t be fooled into thinking the stylish chassis means Computer Direct has ignored the hardware; this PC can be customized with high-end components like the Titan X Pascal and Nvidia’s Quadro P6000, as well as a Skylake, Broadwell E, or Xeon CPU.

Each case comes in either Bamboo or, for $41 more, walnut. The material is sustainable and eco-friendly, designed to last a very long time. Moreover, Computer Direct Outlet says a percentage of the profits from each Volta V will go to Upstate Forever, a nonprofit that “Promotes Clean Air & Water, Sustainable Communities, and Land Trust” in South Carolina.

As with other similarly small PC cases, the Volta looks as if heat could be an issue. But the company says it has been designed with airflow in mind. It comes with an Asetek 545LC compact liquid CPU cooler, uses only blower style GPUs, and pulls cool air from below the case, which is then pushed out of the sides. There are also two large, easily removable magnetic dust filters for easy cleaning, and even a hideaway underneath for storing your keyboard when not in use.

Computer Direct Outlet considers the Volta V to be a piece of classic furniture as much as it is a PC. And the fact it’s made from domestically-sourced, selectively cut trees is reflected in the price. You can reserve one now for $399, with shipping set for this March.

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Like the aesthetics, but mother of god, these pc cases are CNC cut and cost about $45-50 to fully machine and assemble, ( I work with wood at the custom Furniture level and use a CnC for a lot of it ). On principal I would never even look at this.
 
No big deal there, the original Apple came in a wooden box and mine still sits nicely in my closet .... still runs too.
 
Looks very poorly designed as far as layout goes. As anyone who has built a few itx system knows, there is much room for improvement inside this case.

Would never drop that kind of cash on this little space heater
 
Hmm, so the Motherboard I/O is unused?
More like the image is likely a mockup, I mean the GPU is not even connected.

Cable management is atrocious too. The concept is not bad, but the internal layout and implementation is not very good.
 
Aesthetic, but thermally unsound, as wood doesn't dissipate heat.
Actually very sound, the case is very bad at dissipating heat by itself because the hottest components inside are not in contact with the case. The air which stands between the case and major heat sources is a very good thermal insulator. The heat which reaches the case is minimal - it is efficiently removed from the hottest components due to a forced convection process (high speed fans) - however the air flow speed near the case is slower and the convection process is not as efficient. So you want to direct the heat out and not rely on the case to dissipate it. In case of very cramped designs you can make the case to play a bigger role in the system cooling because most of the heat sources will be much closer to the case and the convection process more efficient. If you develop a passive cooling solution you might even put a high thermal conductivity material (radiator) between your hot component and the case - however fans solutions are much more effective at removing heat.
 
That price for the case is kind of absurd; the amount of wood would cost next to nothing and it doesn't look like they even did a very good job on the cut and finish at all. The price for the PC itself is beyond ludicrous.
 
That thing looks terrible for all the reasons stated above. The fact that the manufacturers have never even googled "wooden pc case" is obvious, if they did they would have discovered that nearly every wooden pc case project shown online is much better than this slapdash effort.
 
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Please somebody tell the vendor that the VGA card needs to be put into a respective slot on the motherboard, otherwise the pc on the pictures won't work - that is for the 2nd picture and for the 3rd picture please tell them that you need a motherboard with CPU and memory to make it a computer
 
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