Summary
I have a lot of respect for the efforts that HP has made over the last several years to enhance Omen desktops with the possibility of achieving a position among the top gaming personal computers. The Omen 40L is a product that falls somewhere in the middle of the price range and is available at your neighborhood Best Buy. In spite of the fact that it is priced appropriately and has the appropriate specifications, it does not function as well as it ought to.
evaluation of the HP Omen 40L desktop
Not only does the casing look fantastic, but it also makes it quite simple to do maintenance and upgrades on the computer. All of the components are designed to work together perfectly. Additionally, the relatively small cooling solution is quite effective for the setup that I examined. Unfortunately, the Omen 40L falls short when it comes to the software setup and performance. This means that you will often receive less performance out of the components that are included inside the device than what they are capable of.
evaluation of the HP Omen 40L desktop: specifications and cost
With the Omen 40L, you get a great deal of personalization choices, which is typical of HP products. One thousand dollars will bring you a computer with an Intel Core i5-13400 and an Nvidia RTX 4060, as well as sixteen gigabytes of RAM and a solid-state drive worth 512 gigabytes. You may, however, reach far greater heights. It is possible to scale up to a Core i9-14900K with an RTX 4080 Super, for instance, and spend up to $3,700 on it, depending on the arrangement of your storage.
I looked at a setup that was quite simple, one that seemed to strike the perfect mix between cost and performance for those who are wanting to get their first gaming personal computer. Listed below are the specifications of the review unit, which includes an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 processor and an RTX 4060 Ti graphics card. You may check these specifications here.
Typically, this combination is sold for a price of $1,480 at merchants like as Best Buy; however, it is sometimes discounted. As of the time that this article is being written, the configuration can be purchased for $1,330, and I have seen it go for less than $1,100 in the past. In spite of the fact that it may seem surprising, HP is providing a great deal of value for that price.
Even if you were to choose the most cost-effective components available, which I am certain HP has done to some extent in this case, the total cost of constructing your very own personal computer would be around $1,100. It would not be unreasonable to pay a few hundred dollars for the construction itself, as well as for the guarantee and support. With that being said, if you are able to locate a fantastic offer on the Omen 40L, it is an absolute steal.
It is also a reasonable price in comparison to the other options available. An example of this would be the Dell XPS Desktop, which costs $1,450 and has a setup that is comparable. It is usually the case that you will get more value for your buck by creating your own personal computer, but the Omen 40L is an appealing intermediate alternative for PC gamers who do not want to get their hands dirty.
evaluation of the HP Omen 40L desktop: Quality of construction and design
HP is capable of designing a desktop computer for gaming. There is a sleek black body, a tempered glass side panel and front, and RGB rings around the fans that flood the inside in white light by default. This is the Omen design that we saw a few years ago with the Omen 45L, and it is still there today. This is a fantastic example of how gaming flare and intelligent execution blend together. You will never confuse this with anything other than a personal computer designed for gaming, but you should also know that it will never force a rainbow down your throat.
Additionally, it is not simply the design of the façade. Entering the Omen 40L, it has the sensation of being a custom-built personal computer, and in some cases, it is even better. To get things started, there is no need to use any tools in order to enter the case. You may easily remove the front and top panels of the case, as well as the buttons that are located on the top of the case, which pop off the side panels. There are marks on the casing itself that HP has included, so you won’t have to go through the instructions to figure out how to remove the dust filter in the right manner.
On the same note, the front of the case has a dust filter that can be removed, which is an essential component for maintaining the cleanliness of the internal components. A second magnetic dust filter is placed on the bottom of the chassis, covering the fan that is located on the power supply. Additionally, there is space for another set of fans. A spare space for a 120mm fan can be found in the front of the case, and there are two extra slots at the top of the case. Even better, the fan hub that HP utilizes has extra connections accessible, which means that you may update these components easily and affordably.
In addition, there are four places for extra disks located around the rear of the device, and HP additionally supplies additional
SATA power connections in the event that you want to increase the amount of storage space in the future. In spite of the fact that the power supply is not modular, it is possible to add certain minor improvements, such as storage, without having to reconfigure the whole computer.
The handling of cables inside the casing is not the best solution. The appearance of the components below the motherboard tray is not very important to me; nonetheless, the main chamber of the Omen 40L is a little bit disorganized. Along the same lines as many other prebuilt personal computers, the Omen 40L does not have very good cable routing choices, which results in wires hanging down in the main chamber where they are visible. A cable that is extended over the top of the motherboard is an example of a particularly problematic situation. This wire is connected to the exhaust fan.
Unboxing the personal computer will reveal that HP does not provide a significant amount of security for it. The foam is in good condition; however, the case itself does not have anything that would cover the components, with the exception of a plastic GPU bracket. Although my review sample came without any problems, you should be sure to do a thorough physical examination of your own computer before turning it on to see whether or not anything was broken while it was in route.
evaluation of the HP Omen 40L desktop: The process of heating and cooling
HP has a stronger grasp on cooling than other big companies, as we observed with the Omen 30L a few years ago from our own personal experience. Even with its unimpressive air cooler, the Omen 40L retains its coolness and is mostly silent even when it is operating under full load.
A pair of 120mm intake fans located at the front of the personal computer provide the central processing unit cooler with clean, cold air. Huge intakes in the front of the computer allow for unobstructed airflow into the computer, and a dust filter that can be removed helps to keep the interior of the computer clean. A 120mm exhaust fan is located at the rear of the case, and everything flows out of it. However, there are extra fan mounts located at the top of the case for liquid cooling, which is entirely optional.
During my testing, the temperatures were favourable. The temperature of the Ryzen 7 7700 fluctuated between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius while it was not being used, which is exactly where I would anticipate a smaller air cooler to be. The central processing unit reached its maximum temperature of 70 degrees Celsius when it was subjected to a full load from Cinebench R24, which provides a significant amount of wiggle space. The chip is able to function at temperatures up to 95 degrees before it begins to throttle.
Sounds are a different kind of beast. Almost all of the time, the Omen 40L is quite quiet; in fact, it is rather surprising. However, all of a sudden, it is not. As soon as the temperature hits a certain threshold, the fans begin to speed up to their full capacity, and then they gradually slow down again when the temperature of the environment begins to decrease.
As a result of the very aggressive curve that HP has applied to the fans, you will either hear the Omen 40L at full blast or you will not hear it at all. On the other hand, the Omen Gaming Hub does not allow you to adjust the curve, which is sad since a more gradual slope would have been much better.
evaluation of the HP Omen 40L desktop: In addition to configuration, bloatware
One of the drawbacks of purchasing a major personal computer brand such as HP is the presence of bloatware, and the Omen 40L is not particularly immune to this issue. A multitude of HP tools, such as HP Smart, HP Support Assist, HP Hardware Diagnostics, and a great deal more, are included in the package, in addition to the Omen Gaming Hub. Due to the fact that only the Omen Gaming Hub is pinned to the taskbar, it is quite unlikely that you will ever see the other HP applications.
Sadly, the Omen Gaming Hub is not very good. In addition to being crowded, it is crammed with advertisements for other HP items and games. Some configuration options are available, such as AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO); however, HP burys these choices beneath a large number of additional menus that are not important to the setting process. It would not come as a surprise to me if you accessed the Omen Gaming Hub only once and then closed it without ever having the opportunity to see the various alternatives.
Additionally, a few of those choices are quite significant. For instance, HP does not have the overclocking profile activated on the RAM when it is first made available to the public. In the Omen Gaming Hub, you have the ability to activate this feature; nevertheless, it should actually be enabled out of the box since HP is touting the overclocked speed on their product page.
Antivirus software is the bane of almost every prebuilt computer, and the Omen 40L is not an exception to this rule. This product comes with McAfee already installed, and when I powered up the computer, it was the first thing that appeared on the screen. It is even pinned to the taskbar, and it causes frequent annoyances when it comes to installing extensions for the McAfee browser. This is characteristic of the majority of popular gaming personal computers; nonetheless, it is aggravating that McAfee is so prominently displayed when so many other essential utilities are hidden away.
Getting crucial updates, such as graphics drivers, and accessing key settings, such as your memory profile, are not truly features that are available to you right out of the box. All of this is not difficult to do if you have previously set up a personal computer; yet, as the proverb goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. HP has a lot more that it could do to assist in this regard.
It is important to note that this is not an issue that is exclusive to HP. The Alienware Aurora R16 comes with its own suite of bloatware, and you can find software that is comparable to it on the Tower line of computers manufactured by Lenovo. Dedicated personal computer manufacturers such as Starforge Systems and Origin PC are superior in terms of bloatware since they provide a Windows installation that is quite clean right out of the box.
evaluation of the HP Omen 40L desktop: The performance
This personal computer is primarily designed to support high-end 1080p gaming or 1440p gaming with a few concessions, thanks to its Ryzen 7 7700 and RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards. You will be grateful to have access to eight cores if you wish to use your computer for applications other than gaming, even if the central processing unit (CPU) is a little bit more powerful than what you need for a gaming-only focus.
Cinebench R24 is a good example of how the phenomenon works. Given that this is a non-X component, the single-core speeds are a little bit lower than what we saw with the Starforge Navigator with its Ryzen 5 7600X. However, the multi-core score is far higher than what we observed. To a large extent, it is comparable to the Core i7-13700F that is included inside the Alienware Aurora R16, which is a substantially more costly computer.
According to Geekbench 6, the Core i7-13700F emerges victorious with its assortment of efficient cores. This is a somewhat different perspective from what was previously presented. But when it comes to performance on a single core, the Omen 40L comes out on top.
In this report, I have included the outcomes for Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and PCMark 10, all of which are online programs that keep public databases of results. I am sorry to say that I do not have any data on the other personal computers in this room, but the Omen 40L is producing satisfactory results. Gaming is the primary emphasis here, despite the fact that it has sufficient processing power for office applications such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro.
In this section, I will compare the performance to what you would receive with a pre-built RTX 4060 Ti, assuming that you constructed your own personal computer. My findings above demonstrate why this graphics processing unit (GPU) is not an ideal choice for 4K resolution. In the majority of games, you will not be able to achieve 60 frames per second (fps) if you do not resort to upscaling. A bespoke RTX 4060 Ti gaming PC is the driving force behind the Omen 40L, namely in Cyberpunk 2077. This is the most crucial benefit.
When you play at 1440p, you can see how much performance is opened up. At this resolution, you are consistently able to get above 60 frames per second, and in some cases, you even reach triple digits. Regardless, the Omen 40L is a few frames behind in terms of its performance across games. It is not heat that is the cause of this; rather, it is a combination of the clock speed of the GPU and the RAM operating at its default specification right out of the box.
There are still gaps when the resolution is reduced to 1080p; for example, certain games, like Horizon Zero Dawn, display a gap of ten frames.
In order to provide an accurate representation of how the majority of people would use the Omen 40L, I performed these benchmarks using the default setup that comes out of the box. In spite of this, you are able to narrow the gaps if you enable the appropriate RAM profile and overclock the CPU using pre-boot optimization. One of the issues is that HP ought to have previously completed this task. Although it has the feel of a bespoke computer, the Omen 40L is not outfitted in the same manner.
There is a possibility that this is due, in part, to the fact that the custom motherboard that HP is using here is very limited in terms of its power management in comparison to solutions that are available off the market. A genuine bespoke personal computer, such as the Starforge Systems Horizon II, does not have these limitations on the motherboard, which enables the components to perform to the best of their abilities on the motherboard.
Should you go ahead and get the HP Omen 40L?
When compared to the majority of popular selections, the Omen 40L is a substantial improvement above what you will notice. The cost is not prohibitive, and there is a lot of space for improvement in the storage container. The performance is negatively impacted as a result of an incorrect setting, and this is the aspect that is the most frustrating.
You could make some adjustments to make things better, but doing so would be counterproductive to the idea of purchasing a prebuilt gaming computer in the first place. Rather than inundating customers with advertisements for McAfee and its other products, HP could do a great deal more to enhance speed right out of the box and direct them to beneficial services. Despite the fact that the Omen 40L has a great deal of potential, it does not achieve the accomplishments that it is capable of.
In addition to that, it is surrounded by some fierce rivalry. Starforge Horizon II Pro, which was previously stated, is offered with an RTX 4060 Ti for a price that is somewhat lower than that of the Omen 40L. Even more affordable and with a larger storage capacity is the Asus ROG G16, which is also available.
While HP did a good job with several parts of the Omen 40L, the company’s performance is where it falls short. Regrettably, it is a rather significant issue, and it makes it more difficult for me to suggest the Omen 40L than I would want it to be.
