It’s a tale as old as time. Girl buys kick-ass gaming desktop, girl love kick-ass gaming desktop, gaming desktop’s performance gets throttled because of overheating components. HP’s hoping to alleviate that pain with its latest desktop, the HP Omen Max 45. A hulk of a system, the Omen Max looks like any other gaming desktop these days: big, black, some flashy RGB, a programmable LCD display module, and a big glass panel to see it all. That is, until you see the big, gaping hole at the top of the desktop. That’s where things get interesting.
HP Omen Max 45
There’s a method to HP’s madness. The hole is actually by design as it’s the company’s patented Cryo Chamber cooling system. An industry first, the Cryo Chamber utilizes a radiator to pull in room temperature air from outside the system which it then cools and pumps into the desktop to cool down the CPU. HP claims the new cooling solution yields a 7.5 degree drop. Paired with improved air flow paths which help to keep the temp down on the GPU, it equates to better performance over longer periods of time which is always a good thing.
But what exactly are we cooling? For the processor, it’s an AMD Ryzen show. The base model system features a Risen 7 9700x, but you can configure the desktop to a Ryzen 9 9950X3D. For GPU, the configuration starts at the Nvidia RTX 5070 and maxes out at the 5090. In terms of RAM and storage, the desktop ranges between 16 – 128GB DDR5 RAM and 512GB to 2TB SSD. And for PSU, it goes from 850W to 1200W. HP’s using industry standard components, adding a nice level of future proofing if ever the need to upgrade something arises.
HP Omen 35L Desktop Stealth Edition
But as cool (no pun intended) as the Omen Max 45 is, some gamers want a desktop that’s a little more understated. For you, may I present the HP Omen 35L Desktop Stealth Edition. Sporting an all black aluminum chassis, the Omen 35L eschews the flashy RGB for a sleek look that doesn’t scream “I’M A GAMER” as soon as you boot it up.
Understated doesn’t equate to underpowered however, as the 35L Stealth can pack just as much power as the Omen Max 45, offering the same range of CPUs,GPUs and SSDs. But unlike the Max, the Stealth also has a couple of Intel processors to choose from including an Intel Core i7-14700F CPU. There’s also an option for an Intel motherboard. The RAM selection is a bit more restrained, maxing out at 64GB. However, you get a wider PSU selection as the Stealth goes from 500W to 1200W.
Stay tuned as HP has yet to reveal the pricing on either the Omen Max 45 or the Omen 35L Stealth. Plus, I’m seriously eager both systems for a spin through the gamut of real work and synthetic benchmarks.
