HP Omen 40L desktop evaluation: lacking what counts essentially the most

HP Omen 40L

MSRP $1,480.00

“Despite a beautiful case and solid pricing, the Omen 40L misses the performance boat.”

• Fantastic case design
• Relatively cool and quiet
• Easily serviceable and upgradable
• Affordably priced

• Frustrating bloatware
• Lacking efficiency
• Not configured appropriately out of the field

I’ve appreciated how HP has tried to enhance its Omen desktops over the previous few years in hopes of incomes a spot among the many best gaming PCs. The Omen 40L is a midrange choice, one thing you’d be capable to discover at your native Best Buy. Although it comes with the proper worth and specs, it doesn’t nail efficiency in the way in which it ought to.

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All of the trimmings are proper — the case not solely appears to be like nice, but it surely additionally makes it remarkably simple to service and improve the machine. And the petite cooling resolution is surprisingly potent for the configuration I reviewed. Unfortunately, the Omen 40L drops the ball with regards to the software program configuration and efficiency, which means you’ll typically get much less efficiency out of the components inside than what they’re able to.

Specs and pricing

Typical for HP, you could have a ton of customization choices with the Omen 40L. At the low finish, you will get an Intel Core i5-13400 and Nvidia RTX 4060 for $1,000, together with 16GB of reminiscence and a 512GB SSD. You can go a lot increased, nonetheless. You can scale as much as a Core i9-14900K with an RTX 4080 Super, for instance, and spend upwards of $3,700 relying in your storage configuration.

I checked out a modest configuration, one thing that looks like a great steadiness between worth and efficiency for these trying to get their first gaming PC. You can see the specs for the evaluation unit under, with the machine packing an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and an RTX 4060 Ti graphics card.

At retailers like Best Buy, HP asks $1,480 for this configuration, but it surely typically goes on sale. At the time of this writing, the configuration is on the market for $1,330, and I’ve seen it go underneath $1,100 earlier than. Surprising because it sounds, HP is providing loads of worth right here for that worth.

Even selecting the most affordable parts doable, which I’m certain HP has executed right here to a sure diploma, you’d spend round $1,100 to construct your individual model of this PC. Just a few hundred {dollars} for guarantee, help, and the construct itself isn’t unreasonable. And if yow will discover a stellar sale on the Omen 40L, it’s a downright deal.

It’s a good worth in comparison with the competitors, too. The Dell XPS Desktop with an analogous configuration is available in at $1,450, for instance. As is at all times the case, you’ll get higher bang on your buck by constructing your individual PC, however the Omen 40L is a compelling midrange choice for PC players who don’t need to get their palms soiled.

Build high quality and design

HP is aware of find out how to design a gaming desktop. The Omen design we noticed just a few years again with the Omen 45L stays at this time within the type of a modern black exterior, a tempered glass aspect panel and entrance, and RGB rings across the followers that wash the inside in white gentle by default. It’s a terrific steadiness of gaming aptitude and considerate execution. You’ll by no means mistake this for something aside from a gaming PC, but it surely’s additionally by no means shoving a rainbow down your throat.

It’s not simply the outside design, both. Going contained in the Omen 40L, it feels like a custom-built PC, and typically even higher. For starters, entering into the case is totally tool-less. Buttons on the highest of the case pop off the aspect panels, and you’ll snap off the entrance and prime panels with ease. HP contains markings  on the case itself, so that you don’t must fish out the handbook to see find out how to take away the mud filter appropriately.

Speaking of which, there’s a detachable mud filter on the entrance of the case, which is vital for holding the internals clear. A second magnetic mud filter covers the facility provide fan on the underside of the case. There’s als room for added followers. There’s a spare slot for a 120mm fan upfront, in addition to two on the prime of the case. Even higher, the fan hub HP makes use of has spare connections out there, so you may fairly make these upgrades.

Around the again, you even have 4 slots for added drives, and HP contains extra SATA energy connectors if you wish to develop your storage sooner or later. The energy provide isn’t modular, however no less than you can also make some small upgrades like storage with out reconfiguring your entire machine.

Cable administration contained in the case isn’t one of the best. I don’t care a lot about how issues look behind the motherboard tray, however the Omen 40L is a bit messy in the primary chamber. Like loads of prebuilt PCs, the Omen 40L doesn’t have nice cable routing choices, leaving dangling cables in the primary chamber the place you may see them. One significantly dangerous instance is the exhaust fan, which has a cable stretched throughout the highest of the motherboard.

Upon unboxing the PC, you’ll discover that HP doesn’t embrace a ton of safety. The foam is okay, however there’s nothing contained in the case outdoors of a plastic GPU bracket to guard the parts. My evaluation pattern arrived with out points, however be certain that to present your PC a via bodily inspection earlier than powering it on to see if something was broken in transit.

Heating and cooling

As we noticed with the Omen 30L just a few years in the past, HP has a greater grip on cooling than different mainstream manufacturers. Even with it’s unassuming air cooler, the Omen 40L is cool and largely quiet underneath a full load.

Two 120mm consumption followers on the entrance of the PC feed the CPU cooler, offering it recent, cool air. Large intakes on the entrance present clear airflow into the PC, and a detachable mud filter retains the within of your PC clear. Everything flows out of a 120mm exhaust fan on the again, although there are extra fan mounts on the prime of the case for optionally available liquid cooling.

Temperatures had been good in my testing. At idle, the Ryzen 7 7700 sat between 40 and 45 levels Celsius, which is correct the place I’d anticipate a smaller air cooler to fall. Under a full Cinebench R24 load, the CPU peaked at 70 levels Celsius, which leaves loads of respiratory room. The chip can function as much as 95 levels earlier than it begins throttling.

Noise is a distinct beast. For essentially the most half, the Omen 40L is quiet — shockingly so, in truth. Then, instantly, it isn’t. After the warmth reaches a sure level, the followers ramp as much as most pace and slowly drop again down as every little thing cools down.

HP has a really aggressive curve on the followers, so both you’ll hear the Omen 40L at full blast, or barely hear it in any respect. A extra gradual curve would’ve been much better, and sadly, you may’t tweak the curve within the Omen Gaming Hub.

Bloatware and configuration

One of the downsides of going with a big PC model like HP is bloatware, and the Omen 40L definitely isn’t above that downside. You get a slew of HP utilities — HP Smart, HP Support Assist, HP Hardware Diagnostics, ans on and on — together with the Omen Gaming Hub. You’ll most likely by no means see the opposite HP utilities, as solely the Omen Gaming Hub is pinned to the taskbar.

The Omen Gaming Hub isn’t nice. It’s cluttered and filled with advertisements for different HP merchandise and video games. There are some configuration choices, equivalent to AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO), however HP buries the choices underneath many different irrelevant menus. I wouldn’t be stunned should you opened the Omen Gaming Hub as soon as and minimize it off earlier than ever seeing the choices out there.

Some of these choices are very related, too. Out of the field, HP doesn’t have the overclocking profile enabled on the reminiscence, for instance. You can flip this on within the Omen Gaming Hub, but it surely reallyshould be enabled out of the field when HP is promoting the overclocked pace on its product web page.

The scourge of all prebuilts is antivirus software program, and the Omen 40L isn’t any totally different. It comes with McAfee preinstalled, and it was the very first thing that popped up once I booted the PC. It’s even pinned to the taskbar, with fixed annoyances to put in McAfee’s browser extensions. This is typical of most mainstream gaming PCs, but it surely’s irritating how in your face McAfee is whereas so many different essential instruments are buried.

Out of the field, you’re not likely set as much as get essential updates like graphics drivers and entry essential settings like your reminiscence profile. None of that is laborious to do should you’ve arrange a PC earlier than, however because the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. HP might do much more to assist on that entrance.

This isn’t an issue unique to HP, in equity. The Alienware Aurora R16 comes with its personal suite of bloatware, and also you’ll discover comparable software program on Lenovo’s Tower sequence. Niche PC builders like Starforge Systems and Origin PC are higher on the bloatware entrance, providing a comparatively clear set up of Windows out of the field.

Performance

With a Ryzen 7 7700 and an RTX 4060 Ti, this PC is generally focusing on high-end 1080p gaming, or 1440p gaming with just a few compromises. The CPU is a little more highly effective than what you want for a pure gaming focus, however you’ll respect accessing eight cores if you wish to go outdoors of video games for different apps.

You can see that in motion in Cinebench R24. Single-core speeds are a bit under what we noticed with the Starforge Navigator and its Ryzen 5 7600X — it is a non-X half, in spite of everything — however the multi-core rating is much forward. It’s roughly equal to what you discover with the Core i7-13700F contained in the Alienware Aurora R16, which is considerably dearer.

Geekbench 6 exhibits a barely totally different aspect of the story, with the Core i7-13700F popping out forward with its array of environment friendly cores. The Omen 40L is forward in single-core efficiency, nonetheless.

I’ve included outcomes for Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and PCMark 10, all of which keep public databases of outcomes on-line. Unfortunately, I don’t have knowledge for the opposite PCs right here, however the Omen 40L is placing up respectable outcomes. It has sufficient grunt for productiveness apps like Premiere Pro and Photoshop, however the actual focus right here is gaming.

Here, I’m evaluating efficiency to what you’d get with an off-the-shelf RTX 4060 Ti, assuming you constructed your individual PC. This isn’t a terrific GPU for 4K, and my outcomes above present why. Without upscaling, you’re not going to hit 60 frames per second (fps) in most video games. More importantly, the Omen 40L is behind a {custom} RTX 4060 Ti gaming PC, particularly in Cyberpunk 2077. 

You can see how a lot efficiency opens up at 1440p, the place you’re usually hitting over 60 fps, and typically even going into the triple digits. Regardless, throughout titles, the Omen 40L is just a few frames behind. This isn’t attributable to warmth, however relatively some mixture of GPU clock pace and the reminiscence operating at its default spec out of the field.

Down at 1080p, the gaps stay, with some titles, equivalent to Horizon Zero Dawn, exhibiting a niche of 10 frames.

I ran these benchmarks with the default, out of the field configuration, as I believe that’s how most customers will use the Omen 40L. However, should you allow the right RAM profile and overclock the CPU with PBO, you may shut the gaps. The downside is that HP ought to have already executed this. The Omen 40L looks like a {custom} PC, but it surely isn’t configured like one.

Part of that would must do with the {custom} motherboard HP is utilizing right here, which is relatively restrictive in its energy administration in comparison with off-the-shelf choices. A real {custom} PC, just like the Starforge Systems Horizon II, doesn’t have these restrictions on the motherboard, permitting the parts to succeed in their full potential.

Should you purchase the HP Omen 40L?

The Omen 40L is considerably higher than what you’ll discover with loads of mainstream choices. The worth is affordable, and the case leaves loads of room for upgrades. Performance takes successful attributable to an improper configuration, and that’s what actually stings essentially the most.

You might enhance issues with just a few tweaks, however that runs counter to purchasing a prebuilt gaming PC within the first place. HP might do much more to enhance efficiency out of the field and level customers towards helpful utilities, relatively than cramming in ads for McAfee and its different merchandise. The Omen 40L has loads of potential, however sadly, it doesn’t attain the heights it might.

It sits amongst some stiff competitors as nicely. The aforementioned Starforge Horizon II Pro is on the market with an RTX 4060 Ti for a bit lower than the Omen 40L. The is on the market for even much less, and with extra space for storing.

HP nailed some elements of the Omen 40L, however efficiency is the place it falls behind. Unfortunately, that’s a fairly large deal and makes the Omen 40L tougher to advocate than I want it was.

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