Getting started, picking a case
Before I could get into picking components, locking down the case I wanted to fit everything in was very important. It determines the motherboard, cooling, power supply, and the size and models of video cards. Not to mention in this case finding an orange case helped dictate the orange focus as well. Before picking a case though I did have to at least have an idea of what I wanted to do with the build. In this case I was replacing The Fridge, so I needed to be able to drop two high-end video cards in SLI or Crossfire and ideally an Intel X99 platform would allow the additional processing power and ram for the video and photo editing that I do on a regular basis.
I also knew I didn’t want to build something as large as The Fridge this time around. It was so large that it actually wouldn’t fit in my car so it only made it out to a few events. I considered going with an ITX case or even mATX but I decided to go with an ATX case, but a small form factor ATX case. That might seem like an oxymoron, but there are a few that do fit the bill. The one that really stood out to me though was the Bullet BH7 from CaseLabs. Not only did it have most of the features I wanted, but it would also fit better in my office. Add in the orange option and I was completely sold. Having beat up on the CaseLabs TH10 used in The Fridge, I knew the Bullet would have the build quality to last a long time as well.
The Bullet is split into two halves, the motherboard and all of the sexy bits are up in the top of the case and the power supply and any extra cables have room to hide down in the bottom.
The orange exterior looks great with the flat black interior and with that I knew I wanted to stick with an orange and black look for the entire build to match the case.
For cooling the BH7 has two fan mounts on the front and then an optional setup on top as well that might be able to hold a radiator if I can figure out how to fit the rest of the needed components into the BH7. I also ordered the case with optional light mounts on both sides so I could fit in a little RGB lighting to get proper orange lighting.
I actually wrote all about the CaseLabs Bullet BH7 back in December so I would invite you to check out my full review for a much more detailed look at that case. There are also a few preview shots of the build in there as well.
Keep an eye out next week for part 2 of the Crush build where I start picking out components!
