Finished Looks

The CRYORIG R1 Ultimate with its dark black and gray design definitely doesn't pop and stand out like the R1 Universal. That is not to say it doesn't look good; the design is just more subdued. Still, even with a slightly subdued tone, you can't miss the fact that it's huge and makes even a standard ATX motherboard appear small.


While I understand the desire to make sure people recognize the difference between the R1 Ultimate and Universal, which the two different cover colors accomplish, I can't help but feel as though the R1 Universal is a bit more appealing in general. Thankfully, CUSTOMOD covers can solve that little hiccup.


In terms of motherboard clearance, the R1 Ultimate cannot hold a candle to the R1 Universal. While it does offer better performance, the fact remains that it encroaches on the motherboard's first expansion slot - just like its sibling. As such, the R1 Ultimate is likely not going to be useful for some Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX builds, depending on slot arrangement. It also looms over two DIMM slots and may even conflict with a third. Users will want to stick with standard-height memory as maximum clearance is just 35 mm.


Here, you can see the orange and blue CUSTOMOD covers. The orange cover will be right at home on various Gigabyte AORUS motherboards, but the blue cover feels a bit left out as many boards today do not utilize blue heatsinks.


The green cover is my least favorite; it will fit in well with a Razer- or Nvidia-themed build, but the color is a tad off in regards to matching either of those. The red cover - my favorite - is also a bit off. I would have preferred a more natural red tone as this one has an almost pink hue with light reflecting off it, which means it won't match the test system's motherboard all that well either. Still, for those wanting to make the R1 Ultimate or Universal stand out a bit more, the CUSTOMOD covers do give you that option.