HP is gunning for a significant market share of pre-built gaming PCs with the stunning Omen X desktop, a collaboration between HP and Maingear that puts gaming hardware into a custom-designed cube chassis.
The unique thing about this cube case, which has been specially designed by Maingear for the Omen X, is that it sits on a stand at a 45-degree angle. Complete with LED lighting on the front and an optional glass side panel, the Omen X stands out from the standard gamer-style PC cases we see used for pre-built systems.
The case has three separated chambers inside to optimized airflow: one for the main system, one for any storage drives, and another for the power supply. On the outside are four hot-swap hard drive bays, along with large vents that support up to a 360mm radiator or three 120mm fans.
The base model Omen X will start at $1,799 and include an Intel Core i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD + 2 TB hard drive, and an AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics card, all powered by a completely unnecessary 1300 watt power supply. This is pretty expensive for the hardware you get, but the main appeal here is the custom cube case, which will be sold separately for a whopping $600.
The $1,800 base model will be sold exclusively through HP's website on August 17th, and will be configurable up to two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080s in SLI. A $2,100 model will be coming to retail channels on October 16th that packs a GTX 1060 and 16 GB of RAM.
Maingear is also offering their take on the Omen X, though theirs is more expensive. For $2,999 you'll get an Intel Core i7-6800K CPU with an X99 motherboard, 16 GB of DDR4 memory, a GTX 1070 graphics card, custom liquid cooling, and a 1 TB hard drive. This system is configurable up to dual Titan X (Pascal) cards and a Core i7-6950X, with the most expensive variant costing just under $13,000.