HP Omen 30L Gaming Desktop Review

[Polycount]

If you're in the market for a complete gaming system with reasonably modern hardware and the ability to tackle new games with ease, you can't go wrong with the HP Omen 30L.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2093-hp-omen-30l/

 

[Uncle Al]

Looks like a reasonable build, but I'm still not over how HP uses so many proprietary components in their systems, making it very difficult, if not impossible for the owner to do their own upgrades and modifications.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Computer parts in general now are so cheap that anyone can make a powerful gaming PC.

Multi-core CPU are dirt cheap.

The 3000 series is crushing the 2000 series prices - which means eventually HP and other prebuilts will abandon the 1660Ti for a 2060, 2070 or 2080 - or just jump to the 3070 as an entry GPU.

DDR4 is cheaper than it's been in the past 3 years.

SSD are available in larger sizes and cheaper than in the past 3 years.

As for buying an off-the shelf-prebuilt, what it really comes down to is THE PRICE and THE STYLE.

If I was buying my first computer for back-to-school or just needed a desktop for general workloads, I could easily see shopping my way into an HP OMEN. The stores get volume discounts on them and they end up going on sale before just about any others (Dell, Acer, Asus, etc)

 

[AnilD]

Looks like a reasonable build, but I'm still not over how HP uses so many proprietary components in their systems, making it very difficult, if not impossible for the owner to do their own upgrades and modifications.

I'd generally agree but this new HP Omen is actually pretty good in that regard.

The case/PSU/RGB/fans are Cooler Master, the RAM is HyperX, the SSD is WD Black... and the list goes on. Of course, you also get an AMD CPU and GPU. So it's definitely less of a concern for later upgrades and honestly, it seems like a decent value because you are not getting no-name components.

It's a new model so I must assume it's by design that they've put together a machine that closely resembles a DIY build. The fact that it saves you money vs. building yourself is cool, too. It used to be the case that you paid a few hundred extra for the build/warranty.

 

[Sapleg]

So there is a design flaw a ram issue if you add new ram that isn't from HP the ram speed drop to 2400mhz this is an ongoing issue that needs attention when reviewing the Omen 30L or 25L as there is no xmp in bios

 

[hwsense]

So there is a design flaw a ram issue if you add new ram that isn't from HP the ram speed drop to 2400mhz this is an ongoing issue that needs attention when reviewing the Omen 30L or 25L as there is no xmp in bios

Exactly, every review should start with that, HP are charging $158 per 8gb stick!!!

 

[Lionvibez]

I would never buy a prebuilt machine this one looks ok minus all the flaws posted above.

 

[PEnnn]

" I discovered that you first need to remove a special retaining screw inside the case before taking off the back panel."

Huh?? Would you elaborate on that please??

It sounds like you have to remove the "retaining" screw from inside the case to....get into the case!!

 

[Nobina]

They should've included a bigger SSD. Popular games like COD, WoW, FH4 and many others in the future will stutter on HDD. I would also stay away from any GPU before RTX 30 series is out.

 

[blackey]

Ok, bought the Omen 30L with 2080TI and 10700k. Really wish I hadn't.

1) 2080Ti is a blower design, so fans can not be upgraded and it's very loud. It also runs very very hot 85C+

2) CoolMaster H20 water cooler is really bad. With the CPU not overclocked at all a 3DMark CPU test will peg it at 97C almost immediately. The only option here is to undervolt it and run it under the turbo clock a bit to keep it cool enough to not throttle. Fan is running, it's just a bad design.

3) You can only use HP memory. Any other memory will only run at 2400mhz

4) The case cooling is awful. There is (1) 120mm fan up front and (1) loud 92mm fan in the back plus the fan on the cpu cooler. That's it. And there isn't any space for additional fans. This runs super hot with the side cover on and drops quite a bit without it. Not ideal.

5) Case fans can not be controlled by aftermarket programs such as speedfan. They do not show up. You can only use the Omen control center, which really doesn't give you any control.

 

[deverhart125]

So there is a design flaw a ram issue if you add new ram that isn't from HP the ram speed drop to 2400mhz this is an ongoing issue that needs attention when reviewing the Omen 30L or 25L as there is no xmp in bios

You can get around this by Downloading Ryzen Master and setting it manually. Simply set it to 1600 (DDR4 is dual channel so you set it at half the speed you are trying to get) and you now have 3200Mhz DDR4. If you are comfortable digging deeper you can tighten the timings there along with Ryzen DRAM Calculator which will tell you what timings to use for the different XMP Profiles

 

[deverhart125]

Can actually get the 3200Mhz (or 3000 or 3600 which is the max I would recommend going on AMD as you want to keep the Fabric Clock on Ryzen and the Ram speed the same which for 3600 is 1800 because again dual channel so make your value half of what speed you want.) Set it to 3200 then go to task manager and you will see RAM Speed is now 3200Mhz takes maybe 5 minutes and good to go. You COULD Overclock the CPU from there and GPU from something like Afterburner but I don't recommend this unless you upgrade the CPU cooler and have at least a non-Foxconn (who makes the RTX 2060 mine came with) which I swapped out for a 2070 Super FE just before the Great GPU Shortage of 2020/2021.