The all-new Omen 45L (starts at $2,299; about $5,000 as tested) is HP’s 2022 flagship gaming desktop. This massive tower delivers an aftermarket look and feel, and the company even sells the case by itself should you want to craft your own PC. HP is, of course, all too happy to build it for you in AMD or (as we’re reviewing it) Intel flavors, with your choice of AMD or Nvidia GPUs. The tower comes standard with an innovative liquid-cooling chamber and RGB fans. Add top-notch quality, easy serviceability, room for six storage drives, and outstanding performance into the mix, and the Omen 45L is a natural Editors’ Choice winner for a high-end, full tower gaming desktop.
High-Tech to the Nines
“Well-equipped” is the understatement of the year 2022 so far with the $5,000 Omen 45L tested here, custom-configured from HP.com with Intel’s top-of-the-line Core i9-12900K CPU, a 24GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, 64GB of DDR4 memory, and not one but two 2TB PCI Express 4.0 solid-state drives. It’s overkill for just about anything, especially gaming, but it shows how high this desktop can scale. Liquid CPU cooling and a one-year warranty are standard. Our model has Windows 11 Pro.
HP also offers preconfigured systems. Model 33T58AA#ABA bundles a Core i7-12700K, a 10GB GeForce RTX 3080, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1TB hard drive for $2,699 (roughly in line with the price of Alienware’s Aurora R13). You can also get an Omen 45L with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 8GB RTX 3070 for $2,299 (model 33T57AA#ABA; HP says these prices are subject to change).
Bigger Than You Know
If you’re used to ATX mid-towers, the Omen 45L’s size will be a mild shock. Its dimensions (21.8 by 8 by 18.5 inches, HWD) actually equate to more than the 45 liters implied in its name, but an air gap between the main compartment and the uniquely separate top compartment, which houses the CPU liquid-cooling radiator, explains the difference. HP calls the latter the Cryo Chamber.
The Cryo Chamber gives the Omen 45L an exotic look, but its real purpose is to allow the CPU cooler to directly draw outside air, not warm air from inside the case (as most mid-towers do), to help lower processor temperatures.
Lifting a tab at the back of the top grate provides interior access. Our review model has a 240mm radiator (with two 120mm fans); up to a 360mm radiator can be installed.
The gap can also be used as a handle for moving this monster. It’s a hulking 42 pounds in our review guise, no surprise given its steel and tempered glass construction. The Alienware Aurora R13 is mostly plastic and lacks the Omen’s premium feel.
Easy Serviceability, Big Expansion
A trio of 120mm RGB fans, able to show many colors at once, add glitz behind the tempered glass front panel. The Omen logo above them is also RGB-illuminated. All the lighting is configurable in the Omen Gaming Hub app.
For servicing, the front panel comes off by pressing two buttons, revealing a washable 360mm dust filter.
The interior compartment is plainly visible through the left-side tempered glass. Both side panels also come off without tools via top-mounted release buttons.
HP uses micro ATX motherboards, but the case has room for a full ATX platform. The Intel Z690 board seen here has four DDR4-3733 DIMM slots, each occupied by a 16GB RGB-lit HyperX module for a total of 64GB. Up to 128GB is supported via four 32GB DIMMs.
Though the Z690 chipset supports DDR5, HP says the benefits of the new memory for gaming aren’t enough to justify its extra cost over DDR4. (See our benchmarks later, where the Omen 45L will face off against several DDR5 towers.)
The motherboard also has two M.2 PCI Express 4.0 slots, one left of the CPU cooler and one below the graphics card. Each holds a 2TB Western Digital Black SSD, sensibly covered with a heatsink. The motherboard’s VRMs also have heatsinks with a copper heatpipe, an important feature given our review unit’s power-hungry Core i9 CPU.
The graphics card in our test rig is none other than a colossal 2.5-slot Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090. It’s a standard-length card, but HP designed its cooler. The plastic shroud prevents it from putting stress on the PCI Express slot.
Everything else—the 800-watt Cooler Master power supply, two 3.5-inch bays, and two 2.5-inch bays—is behind the right panel. All the storage bays have toolless caddies. There’s a slide-out dust filter under the power supply.
As expected for a large desktop, the Omen 45L’s port selection satisfies. Top-edge ports include headset and microphone jacks, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. The power button also sits here. A USB-C port would have been nice.
The motherboard connections include audio jacks (headphone, line-in, and line-out), Ethernet, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (one Type-A and one Type-C), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (also one Type-A and one Type-C), and two USB 2.0 ports. The GeForce RTX 3090 provides one HDMI and three DisplayPort video outputs.
The Omen 45L uses an Intel AX201 network card for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth. Its antenna is nicely integrated into the case, which is refreshing when many desktops resort to ungainly external antennas.
HyperX Accessories Galore
Let’s check out several HyperX accessories HP sent with the Omen 45L (not included in our system’s $5,000 price). HP often discounts accessories or offers bundle deals with PC purchases.
HyperX Cloud Alpha Headset
HP’s mid-level HyperX gaming headset, the Cloud Alpha ($59 street) sports a closed-back design that provides some sound isolation. I found its large, cushioned earpads and headband comfortable over long gaming sessions. The headband has adjustable height and attractive red aluminum brackets. I like that the headphone cable and the microphone are detachable, improving longevity. A headphone extension cable is included as well.
The Cloud Alpha’s sound quality satisfies. Its virtual surround effect works well for gaming, if less so for music, where it can sound recessed. Bass, while not thunderous, is deep and won’t let you miss nearby explosions. I found the adjustable microphone to be excellent, reproducing my voice clearly and without distortion. Importantly, the Cloud Alpha has a small inline control unit with a hardware microphone shutoff and volume control.
HyperX Pulsefire FPS Pro Mouse & HyperX Fury S Pro Mousepad
This mouse is an evolution of the original Pulsefire FPS, now offering a lightning-fast 16,000 dpi sensor. It’s a no-frills rodent, but an outstanding value at $35 street, with six programmable buttons, a braided USB cable, and long-lasting Omron switches. The buttons and scroll wheel provide precise movement. I also like the mouse’s lightweight feel. You can configure onboard profiles in the HyperX NGenuity app.
The Pulsefire FPS Pro’s only real sin is that it’s strictly for right-handers, but lefties (and righties) can try the symmetrical Pulsefire Surge, which offers the same sensor and even more pronounced RGB lighting for the same street price.
The HyperX Fury S Pro gaming mousepad ($19 for the large version seen here) is a natural partner for the Pulsefire FPS Pro. The topside is smooth cloth with an anti-fray border; the underside is anti-slip rubber. As it’s not a rigid pad, you can roll it for easy transport. The large version measures 17.7 by 15.7 inches, which I found too big for my desk. You can also get it in small, medium, or even extra-large sizes.
HyperX Alloy Origins Core Mechanical Keyboard
We found the full version of this keyboard to be excellent. The Core version tested here drops the number pad and the price ($69 versus $99 street). This keyboard has HyperX Red mechanical switches, which offer low resistance and a quick, linear keystroke. They’re superlative for gaming, though I’d prefer a more tactile feel for non-gaming use. For that, you can get an Alloy Origins Core with more tactile Aqua switches.
Though this keyboard is simple and straightforward, it still has a detachable USB-C cable. You can configure its lively per-key RGB backlighting and custom macros in the HyperX NGenuity app.
HP Omen 27C Monitor
It isn’t a HyperX-brand product, but HP also let us try its Omen 27C 27-inch gaming monitor ($529). Its key features include 1000R curvature, QHD (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) native resolution, and a 240Hz high refresh rate. The strong curvature makes for an immersive experience in flight sims and sim racing, but it doesn’t look unnatural for general productivity.
All the content and games that I tried on this display looked superb. Using a Datacolor SpyderX colorimeter, I measured a peak brightness of 402 nits, matching HP’s 400-nit rating. The display covered 99% of the sRGB, 84% of the Adobe RGB, and 88% of the DCI-P3 color gamuts. It’s also Eyesafe certified for low blue light emissions and supports adaptive refresh rates via AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. The supplied stand offers tilt, swivel, and height adjustment. You can also use aftermarket stands since it uses a standard VESA mount.
Testing the Omen 45L: It’s a Chart-Topper
To refresh your memory, the Omen 45L desktop tested here has a Core i9-12900K CPU, 64GB of DDR4-3733 memory, two 2TB PCI Express 4.0 solid-state drives, Windows 11 Pro, and a 24GB GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. It’s the definition of bleeding edge, and as such I compared it to the fastest gaming desktops that we’ve tested. The Maingear Turbo is the smallest but formidable, with AMD’s 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X and a GeForce RTX 3090. The Velocity Micro Raptor Z55 and abovementioned Alienware Aurora R13 use the same Core i9-12900K as our Omen, though both boast DDR5 instead of DDR4 memory. Last up is the mainstream NZXT H1 Mini Plus, by far the most affordable of the bunch at $1,799.
The Omen 45L behaved itself well during the performance testing. Its fans aren’t silent, but they meld into the background. They should be inaudible if you’re using an open headset or speakers.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests
Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive. Even the Omen 45L’s sky-high 9,035 points in the main test wasn’t enough to best the Velocity Micro, but it leaves us no room for complaint (4,000 points indicates excellent productivity for Microsoft Office). The HP also did reasonably well in the storage test, where the NZXT’s older PCI Express Gen 3 SSD brought up the rear.
Three other benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
Our final productivity test is Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
The Omen 45L mostly trailed the Alienware and Velocity Micro, perhaps due to their use of faster DDR5 memory. On the plus side, DDR4 is much less expensive should you want to add more RAM later.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
For Windows PCs, we run both synthetic and real-world gaming tests. The former include two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Also looped into that group is the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to gauge OpenGL performance.
The Omen 45L’s slightly lesser CPU performance didn’t seem to affect it in these tests, where it matched the Alienware and Velocity Micro towers. The latter’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is nearly as fast as the much pricier RTX 3090 in real-world gaming (and thus a much better value).
Moving on, our actual game tests rely on the in-game benchmarks of F1 2021, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege, representing simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive/esports shooter games respectively. On gaming desktops, we run the tests at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolution.
The Omen 45L trailed slightly in our real-world gaming tests, though the numbers started to even out at 4K resolution (where the CPU is less of a factor). If you’re investing in a GeForce RTX 3080 or better, 4K ought to be your battleground, anyway.
A Promising Omen: Mega-Tower Excellence
Big-tower power is the HP Omen 45L’s forte. Not only is it well-designed, but it’s innovative thanks to its unique CPU cooling chamber. Its expansion and serviceability are both top-notch, and its metal and tempered glass construction gives the system a premium feel. HP is confident enough to sell the case separately, an unusual move for a mainstream company.
Though the Omen 45L doesn’t offer DDR5 memory, we found this made only a minor difference in gaming performance next to two DDR5 towers we tested, and DDR4 is considerably less costly for upgrades. Overall, the Omen 45L earns top marks, including an Editors’ Choice award for a big gaming tower.
