HP Omen 40L review: this gaming PC packs a 1080p punch

With its demonic title and glowing RGB lighting, the HP Omen 40L appears like a menacing gaming rig from the surface. Inside, you’ll additionally discover a stable gaming PC with modest specs, a mid-size footprint, and a temptingly low worth. This mannequin comes operating on the newest AMD Ryzen 7000-series CPUs and both AMD Radeon RX 6000-series graphics or, as examined right here, Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series graphics.

With numerous glass to point out off its parts, the HP Omen 40L additionally appears a bit of extra glamorous than a few of its cost-conscious opponents vying to be one of the best gaming PC on this worth vary, with some engaging RGB lighting seen behind its glass panel.

The HP Omen 40L is equipped for players seeking to get all of the {hardware} they should dive into the newest video games with medium-to-high settings, whereas having fun with a bit of little bit of aptitude due to some RGB lighting. After a few weeks of testing and enjoying video games on this PC, I can affirm that the HP Omen 40L gives respectable worth for players who need a new rig however don’t know construct a gaming PC themselves.

Specs

The HP Omen 40L isn’t a staggering system. It doesn’t function the highest-end parts, and as a substitute goes for a middle-of-the-road strategy. In our take a look at system, the Ryzen 7 7700 CPU gives eight cores based mostly on AMD’s sturdy Zen 4 structure, that are nicely fitted to gaming and streaming, and increase to as much as 5.3GHz.

That comes paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti (8GB) graphics card. It’s not the quickest within the household, and the 8GB of VRAM can begin to restrict you if you wish to allow the entire highest graphics settings. Nevertheless, for 1080p and 1440p gaming, and particularly with older video games, it will probably get by.

The larger issue for the 4060 Ti is that it additionally will get to faucet into the Nvidia DLSS 3 suite of expertise for upscaling and Body Era, letting it make up for a scarcity of uncooked efficiency with some spectacular AI methods that severely increase body charges in video games that help them.

It’s not too shocking to see HP go along with a B650 (AMD’s cheaper however nonetheless succesful chipset) motherboard right here, and it’s a first-party design. I used to be a bit of disillusioned to see that it’s micro-ATX board, although, as that limits upgrades down the street if you wish to add a number of PCIe playing cards.

Worse, although, I discovered that the DDR5 reminiscence wasn’t appropriately arrange out of the field, with it operating at 4,800MHz as a substitute of the 5,200MHz marketed. It’s a easy situation to right in BIOS, however somebody shopping for a prebuilt system might not even know to test. You additionally solely get 16GB of RAM, which is on the low finish in 2024, and it’s solely extra shameful that HP even gives the choice to get a configuration with simply 8GB. On the plus facet, the Kingston Fury RGB RAM put in on this machine does look incredible.

One bonus hidden within the specs, although, is that 80 Plus Gold ranking for the 600W energy provide (or 800W on higher-spec fashions). You’re fortunate to search out out nearly something in regards to the energy provide in a pre-built system from a giant OEM like HP, however figuring out that this technique could make environment friendly use of its energy is nice information. It doesn’t have fairly sleeved cabling, however HP has performed an inexpensive job of tidying the black wires out of the way in which, and the PSU itself has an honest spec for the value.

Options

You received’t discover many cutting-edge options on the HP Omen 40L. It’s a contact behind the curve but it surely’s not lagging too far behind both. Wi-Fi 6 with 2×2 multiplexing can present a really quick and steady wi-fi connection, and most of the people’s house web nonetheless isn’t taking full benefit of this, so the dearth of Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 doesn’t damage an excessive amount of. The 1Gbps Ethernet port can also be loads for many.

Not one of the USB ports are as much as the newest requirements both. There are a number of USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps ports, however most are easy 5Gbps ports and even older USB 2.0 ports. With requirements for 20Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) and 40Gbps (USB4) ports, it’s a bit of disappointing to see solely dated choices. At the least there’s a superb amount of them, with loads of USB out there on each the entrance panel and rear of the desktop, plus audio connections at each ends.

HP gives a one-year restricted {hardware} guarantee. That features chat help for the entire 12 months and telephone help for the primary 90 days. It doesn’t sound all that spectacular, and HP doesn’t provide numerous perception into what is definitely lined by the guarantee, although gives loads of element on what isn’t. Disappointingly, I additionally discovered that the Trustpilot evaluations of HP’s service and guarantee are additionally largely unfavorable.

Design

I just like the HP Omen 40L’s engaging design. It comes fitted with a smokey glass entrance and facet panel, displaying off the parts and RGB lighting on two consumption followers, the CPU cooler, the RAM heatsinks, and the glowing HP Omen brand on the entrance of the machine. Whereas each the RGB lighting and glass are engaging, they’ve some small downsides. The lighting likes to kick in on occasion, even whereas the pc is asleep, and it’s very brilliant in a darkish room. The glass panels are additionally liable to displaying fingerprints.

With glass protecting the entrance of the system, HP needed to construct two skinny vertical channels into the body to let the consumption followers really pull some clear air into the system, and these followers are lined by a wonderful mesh filter. Each the entrance panel and filter can pop off with no need any instruments, and the filter part extends above the 2 followers, with sufficient house to offer airflow to a 3rd fan if essential.

Customers looking for to optimize airflow may set up a 3rd 120mm fan and easily pop off the entrance cowl when the efficiency is required. What’s extra, for the reason that illuminated Omen brand is powered by a POGO connector, no guide disconnecting and rewiring is critical when you take away the entrance panel.

In the meantime, the highest of the case contains a slick lattice that stands out a bit of greater than the essential sequence of pinholes some circumstances use, and in addition gives some air flow. The highest additionally contains two buttons that launch the facet panels for fast entry to the insides of the system. The front-panel ports are inset and angled as nicely, so small drives and dongles plugged in right here don’t awkwardly stand out from the highest of the system. It makes for a clear aesthetic.

The cooling of the system isn’t all that cleverly arrange, though it does maintain the HP Omen 40L sounding pretty hushed even below load. The 2 consumption followers sit low within the system. The underside one successfully channels its air right into a decrease chamber that received’t give the graphics card or CPU a lot of its contemporary air.

Additionally, for the reason that energy provide can also be largely remoted, this fan received’t be doing a lot. In the meantime, the higher fan sends its air straight again towards the graphics card. This leaves the CPU not getting a direct stream of contemporary air from outdoors the system. That stated, there may be an exhaust fan behind the CPU cooler that may assist be sure that a minimum of its waste warmth will probably be sucked out of the system.

Past this, the system is pretty regular by way of design, with the underside chamber hiding away numerous cables, with room to carry a number of further drives. What’s extra, the entire case isn’t obnoxiously giant, with dimensions that are available in at a bit of trim in comparison with many mid-tower circumstances (although actually not as small as you’ll be able to go along with a micro-ATX motherboard). Oddly, regardless of what the title would have you ever assume, the system is sort of 45 liters in quantity.

Benchmarks

Except you utilize DLSS, you received’t be maxing out video games with ray tracing and getting excessive body charges on the HP Omen 40L, a minimum of not the newest AAA video games, however the PC does a decent job maintaining. In Cyberpunk 2077, the RT Extremely mode is a severely demanding setting, and the HP Omen 40L struggles to run it easily with out DLSS.

Nevertheless, it simply manages to get close to the 45fps common threshold we’d take into account acceptable. It falls to a poor ~25fps common for 1440p although. Nonetheless, that’s simply a place to begin for players. Figuring out that the system can muster that degree of efficiency with settings nearly maxed out simply means you could increase efficiency by dialing again settings. Simply disabling ray tracing, you’ll be able to see body charges leap (to over 90fps in our testing), whereas nonetheless having the ability to get pleasure from excessive particulars.

With the RTX 40-series, although, you can even faucet into DLSS 3 Body Era, which boosted the common body price to a easy 71fps at 1080p. This setting can apply to video games whether or not ray tracing is enabled or not, so there’s even additional potential to extend smoothness. For instance, it took our non-ray-traced gameplay as much as a median of 135fps.

F1 23 wasn’t fairly as demanding, and confirmed that the HP Omen 40L is as much as the duty with extra modest assessments. With Extremely Excessive settings on this sport, the PC saved up a median of 68.5fps at 1080p with lows of simply 59fps. Even 1440p was within the acceptable vary at a median of 50fps. Plus, after all, the sport appears immaculate with Extremely Excessive settings. Avid gamers who crave extra pace merely must dial again the graphical particulars a bit of to bump up their body price.

Much less graphically demanding video games additionally get a leg up. The Ryzen 7 7700 CPU is loads competent with this GPU at its facet, and the 2 parts helped the system run Complete Warfare: Warhammer 3 at a median of practically 102fps with Extremely settings at 1080p. That’s wonderful efficiency for easy gameplay. Even 1440p was attainable with a median of 66.5fps and lows solely dipping to 51fps.

The CPU on deck will not be a prime canine out there, but it surely’s received sufficient may to make sure it’s not a bottleneck for the GPU. It scored 981 factors in Cinebench R24 and, maybe extra importantly, confirmed constant efficiency. Regardless of the tight opening on the entrance of the HP Omen 40L, the CPU didn’t appear to choke and run into main thermal throttling that will diminish efficiency.

Efficiency was constant in 3DMark’s Time Spy and CPU Profile assessments as nicely. It would seem to be a waste to have an eight-core CPU that’s not working as exhausting because the GPU whereas gaming, however that further horsepower can step in to assist with duties like sport streaming with out seeing your body charges take a nosedive in consequence.

Worth

The HP Omen 40L has a beginning worth of $1,299.99, although that bumps as much as $1,823.99 for the configuration on take a look at right here. You will get away with out the $140 CPU improve, although, and the Ryzen 5 7600 model will probably be wonderful if you wish to avoid wasting cash.

Nevertheless, we advise avoiding the bottom spec model, which solely has 8GB of RAM, an RTX 4060, and 512GB of storage. That mixture, particularly the reminiscence, is inadequate for a contemporary gaming PC. Thankfully, the retail worth for desktops from main OEMs proves largely nebulous. On the time of writing, our configuration was going for simply $1,479.99 at Greatest Purchase, which is way extra palatable given the {hardware} it contains.

Kitting out an identical system with individually bought components, after which assembling them your self, will value an identical sum of money, or presumably extra relying on the particular parts you select. It additionally entails PC constructing and configuring abilities that aren’t for everybody.

At its road worth, the HP Omen 40L gives respectable worth, not bearing any main faults from its design and looking out engaging. HP additionally nonetheless gives easy accessibility to the internals in case you need to make a number of upgrades of your individual, comparable to including extra storage or reminiscence.

Verdict

The HP Omen 40L is a beautiful gaming PC when you’re on a considerably tight price range. It has a reserved design that springs to life with inside RGB lighting when it wakes up. It doesn’t provide all of the cutting-edge options discovered on a high-end laptop, but it surely’s not lacking loads relating to quality-of-life, utility options like quick Wi-Fi, and an abundance of ports.

The efficiency it gives additionally lets you max out settings on all the newest video games at 1080p, so long as you allow DLSS, and it will probably present easy gameplay the place ray tracing isn’t concerned with out DLSS. At its MSRP, the worth isn’t nice, particularly with simply an RTX 4060 Ti, which is held again each by uncooked efficiency and restricted VRAM. Nevertheless, if you should purchase this PC on the present $1,479.99 worth (or decrease), that worth is difficult to beat, even when you had been to construct your PC with comparable specs.

Options

If the HP Omen 40L isn’t fairly proper in your wants, take a look at our full information to one of the best gaming PC, the place we run you thru all one of the best choices with a spread of specs and costs to fit your wants.