It’s a platform beast

At CES, HP announces two all-new gaming desktops, the OMEN 40L and OMEN 45L. That’s right, this stuff is big, and the company sent me the OMEN 45L desktop computer to review, fixing it along the way. In fact, this thing is a monster.

But it is not only strong. HP said it wanted to give the feel of a custom-built computer. This means that this thing is easy to disassemble, upgrade, etc. It’s also huge at 45 liters, but if you’re concerned about that, the company offers options for OMEN desktops that go down to 40 liters, 30 liters and 25 liters. The OMEN 45L is completely new for this generation, and the larger size means not only more customization, but also cooling.

Browse this review:

About this review: HP sent us an OMEN 45L for review before CES. The company had no input on the content of this review.

Design: aesthetics and airflow

First of all, I would like to talk about the general appearance and appearance of the HP OMEN 45L. After all, while functionality was a consideration when designing this computer, it still absolutely matters whether something hurts the eye when it’s sitting at or under your desk. It’s not that.

This computer is actually very beautiful. It has a clean and elegant design, similar to what we saw in the previous HP OMEN 30L, but bigger and hotter. The fans in the front used to have white lighting, but they have RGB lighting now. Of course, you can set it to white if you want a more subtle look. There is also a third fan now, which is exclusive to the 45L model. Smaller ones like the 40L have two, while the 30L has one.

The side is a pane of glass, so you can see all the interior. Things like the DDR4 memory, CPU cooler, and GeForce RTX logo also light up.

One thing I really appreciate is the presence of four USB Type-A ports on the front, along with microphone and speaker jacks. What I don’t quite understand is why there is so much USB 2.0. Two USB 3.2 Gen 1, which is a bit dated already with USB 3.2 Gen 2 and even USB 4 there now, but two USB 2.0.

The same goes for the ports on the back. There are only four USB Type-A ports on the back, two of which are USB 2.0. To make things even more confusing, among the other two, one is USB 3.2 Gen 1 and the other is USB 3.2 Gen 2. The same goes for the two USB Type-C ports.

Sure, USB 2.0 is good for some scenarios. Connect mouse and keyboard? No problem. Want to connect an external SSD drive to play 4K video or connect a 4K webcam? Don’t you dare.

The problem is that the end user has to know this. They need to know what the different USB logos mean (SS stands for SuperSpeed, so if there isn’t SS, it’s USB 2.0), and they need to know each port’s capabilities. Not a fair expectation that you place on the user.

There are also a few precious ports on the back of this PC that get in the way of half of such USB Type A ports. Ideally, you use the front ports for things that plug in and unplug frequently, and you use the rear ports for things connected all the time, like keyboard, mouse, webcam, headphone, and…don’t worry, we’re out of ports.

Design: HP OMEN 45L Desktop is designed for personalization

Tool-free repairability is something I’ve heard a lot from HP over the years, but the OMEN 45L Desktop takes it to another level. The company said this is supposed to feel like a dedicated PC.

Either of the two side panels can be removed by pressing a button at the top. fact, everyone The panels can be removed easily. You’ll notice that there’s a component on the top called a Cryo Chamber, and there’s also a gap between that and the top of the computer, so it can be used as a handle to pick it up. The cooling chamber is where the liquid coolant is pumped from. As mentioned earlier, there are three fans in the front that draw in air, and that is pushed through the back of the unit.

Removing the other board gives you access to cable management, the back of the CPU, etc.

The front panel can also be removed, along with a dust filter that passes over the three RGB fans. This makes it easy to clean. And again, there were no screws to remove to remove any of these parts. You can also remove the Cryo Chamber itself, the lid above it, and more.

Performance: HP OMEN 45L Desktop has high specs, but DDR4 . memory

For this review, HP sent me the full set. The OMEN 45L desktop submitted for review is fully built with an Intel Core i9-12900K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD, and 64GB of RAM. OMEN also sent out a 27-inch QHD curved monitor with a refresh rate of 240Hz, and a host of HyperX accessories like the Pro Gaming Mouse Pad, Cloud Alpha headset, Pulsefire FPS Pro mouse, and Origins Core keyboard.

I don’t expect that everyone who buys this computer will select it like this unit, or that everyone will get a full set of accessories. This thing is clearly a monster. If you’re playing a game, there’s no way it’s built for anything with a higher specification than this PC, because there are no higher specs. Well, mostly.

He. She Do Use DDR4 memory instead of the newer DDR5 supported by 12th generation Intel CPUs. HP said this is due to a lack of components. DDR5 prices are still pretty high, and they won’t go down once anyone would hope. You’ll notice this a lot in products released from CES. There are still many who use DDR4. The only problem is that now you have to ask yourself if you want to shell out $5000 for a gaming PC that uses DDR4.

I ran AIDA64 and MaxxMem2 to test the memory. I also ran it on the computer I used to review 12th generation Intel processors. It’s a custom build that includes a Core i9-12900K, 64GB DDR5 (two 32GB sticks), an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD.

Using DDR4 is not the end of the world. It’s not even a huge improvement given the longer response time. And in fact, if you’re not after a $5,000 SKU, you probably don’t care.

Let’s move on to some performance benchmarks. Obviously, the HP OMEN 45L Desktop will absolutely crush it here. Note that I haven’t always run the same criteria over the years, so some scores will be incomplete. Three of the four computers in use are the latest generations of this product, but the list was actually made by sorting my benchmark list by PCMark 10 scores.

3DMark also rates a game’s performance when running its tests. Here’s what was found:

For more details on these tests, such as PCMark 10 test scores, 3DMark CPU and GPU score analysis, and CrystalDiskMark scores, see the images below.

Conclusion: Should You Buy the HP OMEN 45L Desktop Computer?

The new HP OMEN 45L desktop computer is an excellent gaming PC, and as usual, the company has done a great job looking at things like customization and cooling. It also boasts superior performance with 12th Gen Intel processors and RTX 30 series graphics. You can even get it with AMD Zen 3 processors if that’s your style.

It has its drawbacks, which I noted in my review. For me, the biggest is that it comes with DDR4 memory, since that’s not something you can upgrade later. You can add memory if you bought a PC for less than that, but you can’t replace it with DDR5 modules, even though the CPU and chipset support them. They just won’t fit on the board. Again, for most users, it shouldn’t be a big deal. I would just say that for those who buy the exact model like the one HP sent me, I’d like DDR5 when I spend $5,000 for the best of the best.

The other is a confusing array of USB ports. Half of the eight USB Type-A ports are USB 2.0, which is a real pain point in itself, not to mention the fact that you’re asking users to know which ports, and what that means.

But once you get past that, this is a great machine. It’s sleek, quiet, upgradable, and the performance is great. With a separate Cryo Chamber, it uses outside air to cool the CPU, rather than the warm air inside. And with the latest parts from Intel, there are separate cores for different tasks, using the Intel Thread Director. If you want a great gaming PC, this is the way to go.