HP announced its new Omen Max 45L desktop gaming PC in 2025, and it arrived with several upgrades over previous models.

I'm talking about an upgraded cooling system built on the back of HP's unique "Cryo Chamber." About a new modular power supply with an auto-cleaning fan. About new in-depth overclocking abilities.

The Omen Max 45L recently landed in my office, and I've been using it for a couple of weeks to see what it's all about. Does it make a strong case for itself compared to a DIY build? Does it have enough premium features to warrant a premium price? Here's what you need to know.

HP sent Windows Central a review unit on loan for testing. It had no input, nor saw the contents of this review, prior to publication.

How much does the HP Omen Max 45L cost?

HP's Omen Max 45L does not come cheap as a direct result of inflated component costs and the general high-end nature of the system.

Looking at HP.com at the time of writing, prices start at $3,489.99 for a model with an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X CPU, NVIDIA RTX 5070 GPU, 32GB of Kingston Fury DDR5-6000 RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.

Prices climb all the way to $6,499.99 for a model with an AMD Ryzen 9 990X3D CPU, NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU, 4TB of storage, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM.

The specific unit I'm reviewing costs closer to $5,959.99 before any discounts. At the time of writing, it's $800 off the regular price, bringing it down to $5,159.99. Here's a closer look at the specs that make up the PC I'm testing.

I put together a mock build on PCPartPicker to compare pricing. With the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, PSU, X870 motherboard, Windows 11, and Lian Li O11 case, you're looking at roughly $4,616. Add some extra ARGB case fans in there, and you might hit $4,800 to $5,000.

Without a discount, HP is charging a lot more for the Omen Max 45L compared to building your own. If you are interested in this PC, I definitely recommend waiting for a deep discount.

Is the HP Omen Max 45L assembled properly with good cable management?

I've been on a run of good luck lately regarding pre-built PCs I tested and reviewed, and I had high hopes for the Omen Max 45L's build quality and cable management.

In the former case, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The PC has a sturdy separate top compartment that can be used to lug around the 50-pound system, quick-release side and front panels, and a pull-off top panel hiding the AiO radiator.

It's easy to get inside the PC without any tools, and I appreciate that there's a removable dust screen for the three front intake fans. I live with two cats and ... you get the idea. I've been using the PC for a couple of weeks, and there was minimal dust to blow out when it came time for photos.

The massive RTX 5080 GPU is held in place with an additional bracket — also removing the need for any bothersome foam packing en route — and I had to make no adjustments out of the box. The PC turned on and booted up as soon as I hit the power button.

There are a couple of areas where the build quality could be better. I noticed immediately that the CPU pump header isn't mounted squarely on the chip. The front panel of the case seems to stick on one side. And the rear side panel doesn't quite match up flush with the rest of the tower unless I really take my time lining it up.

Cable management leaves a lot to be desired

Cable management in the HP Omen Max 45L isn't great. It feels like it was a rushed job, leaving stray cables and extra length on the visible side. Not only does this make for a messy appearance, but it can also interfere with internal air cooling.

Around the back, behind the all-metal panel, things aren't much better. Compared to, say, Maingear's MG-1 MK.II or Acer's Nitro 65, the Omen Max 45L's (normally) hidden cabling is spaghetti.

There's a snarl of cables pinched between the panel and motherboard backing, and another snarl sitting in front of the modular PSU. One thing I can appreciate is that the correct SATA cables are sitting idle in front of the dual (empty) HDD bay for easier connectivity.

How is port selection on the HP Omen Max 45L?

The front of the case hosts four ports and an LED power button. There are two USB-A at 5Gbps each, one USB-C at 10Gbps, and one 3.5mm audio combo jack. Not too bad in terms of convenience for ports often used.

Around back, on the custom HP micro-ATX motherboard, you'll find four USB-A 2.0 ports (with speeds measured in Mbps) as well as two more USB-A at 5Gbps. Two additional USB-C at 10Gbps round out USB connectivity.

HP has a 2.5Gb Ethernet port for wired connectivity, as well as dedicated jacks for line in, line out, and microphone. This is a fairly austere port setup, leaving a lot of space on the board's I/O blank. At least there's an easy CMOS reset button available.

As for the GPU, ports depend on the card you get. The RTX 5080 here has one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort 2.1b.

How does the HP Omen Max 45L's cooling set itself apart from other PCs?

The Omen Max 45L's most prominent feature is its dedicated Cryo Chamber that hosts the AiO CPU cooler's radiator separately from the rest of the PC. The air-gapped setup means that only ambient air is cooling the fins, and the hot air forced out the other side by the fans doesn't enter back into the PC.

It's an admittedly ingenious setup that makes a difference, especially when you're working with flagship GPUs that produce quite a bit of heat that's spilled directly into the main portion of the case. It does, however, add quite a bit of bulk to the case. If you're short on space already, this probably isn't the PC for you.

The Omen Max 45L uses mostly standard parts

A big issue a lot of people have with big-brand pre-built PCs is their insistence on using proprietary hardware inside. I'm talking about parts that can't be easily replaced because they're some weird size or shape.

That's not the case here. Well, not exactly. The motherboard is a custom micro-ATX HP 8E55 using AMD's X870 chipset. It's a standard size that makes for easy replacement, and the case also fits up to a full-size ATX board.

I'm not sure why HP didn't just go for the full-size board in the first place. The massive GPU blocks off a lot of the board, and you'll absolutely be pulling the card out of the case if you have to do anything that involves the secondary SSD or the M.2 Wi-Fi card.

The RTX 5080 is also a custom HP job with a snazzy Omen-styled casing. It performs just as well as any other 5080 out there made by a known brand.

I tested it using 3DMark's Speed Way and Steel Nomad tests and came back with these scores of 8,996 and 8,628, respectively.

There were no surprises from the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, either; it performed as expected in baseline benchmark tests. If you're buying this PC strictly for gaming, I'd recommend sticking with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. It costs $330 less and will deliver incredible gaming performance.

The Samsung SSD isn't the fastest we've tested, but it gets the job done with 6,626 MB/s read and 4,993 MB/s write speeds. Check out these graphs for a comparison to other hardware we've recently tested.

The PSU is actually one of the PC's strong points, which goes against a lot of other pre-built systems. It's a 1200W Platinum-grade option with a Cybenetics Platinum rating. It's fully modular for easy tweaking, it's quiet, and it has a custom reverse fan cleaning tool to spin the dust out of the hardware.

Even the separated AiO cooler can be replaced should the stock HP option that ships with the PC not be up to snuff for your needs.

Does the HP Omen Max 45L have good airflow?

To check airflow and temperatures, I ran a lengthy 3DMark Speed Way stress test. With all panels in place, including the front glass panel, the CPU hit 46 degrees Celsius, and the GPU hit 75 degrees.

With the front glass panel removed, GPU temperatures fell to about 74 degrees Celsius. The CPU, with separated cooling, saw no change. That's a minor difference, and you should have no problems keeping the PC cool as intended.

It's worth noting that the PC runs very quietly. The most noise I could get out of it was during the stress tests, and it peaked at just 47 decibels. That's quieter than most other pre-built PCs I've tested, and you'll hardly notice it's running even under load.

Does the Omen Max 45L come with useful custom software?

The main software to control this PC is HP's Omen Gaming Hub. It serves ads while open (annoying), but it does a decent job of controlling the PC.

The ARGB in the PC seems to have some issues, and I suspect it has to do with HP's firmware. It'll turn off randomly and not turn back on until the PC restarts, or it will reset on its own while using the PC.

HP includes a lot of software I deem unnecessary, including McAfee antivirus, Adobe offers, and Booking.com. It's classic bloatware. That's without mentioning the seven different HP apps that come preinstalled.

It can all be removed, but it's still an annoyance on a PC this expensive, especially when competitors are shipping clean installs of Windows 11.

Should you buy the HP Omen Max 45L?

You should buy this if ...

✅ You want a unique and powerful desktop PC for gaming or creative work.

✅ You'd rather not save some money with a DIY build.

You should not buy this if ...

❌ You're looking for the best value possible in a pre-built gaming PC.

❌ You want the absolute best cable management and build quality.

There's no question that the HP Omen Max 45L delivers on top-tier performance and cooling. Unfortunately, its assembly and cable management don't feel like they match the high price.

Worse, the PC comes with quite a bit of bloatware, and there are what I suspect are firmware issues that plague the built-in RGB lighting.

The pre-built gaming PC market has come a long way in recent years, and the Omen Max 45L ultimately feels like it's stuck in the past. It won't disappoint those who need a ton of power, but there are plenty of alternatives out there that will deliver a superior product at a similar price.

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The HP OMEN is now under HyperX, so don't worry, you aren't imagining things. It's part of a simple rebrand that happened a while ago, and now the gaming side is fully transitioning over while the designs generally remain the same. This time around, the HyperX OMEN 15 opts for a mid-range RTX 5050 laptop GPU from NVIDIA and cleverly pairs it with a 120Hz OLED display for strong contrast.

Various models come with cheaper components, but this modern offering tempts with ~$700 discounts directly from HP to offset what would otherwise be an off-putting MSRP. Still, can any gaming laptop really be worth spending thousands of dollars, or is that money better spent elsewhere? I spent a week with a sample to find out, and this is what I discovered in my testing.

How much does the OMEN 15 cost?

You can buy the HP OMEN 15 in a wealth of varying specs directly from HP, including previous models with Intel's 14th Gen mobile "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors from 2024 and AMD's Ryzen 8000 Series "Dragon Range Refresh" from 2025. Modern equivalents with the same Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" chips as my sample start at $1,999.99.

An exact match to the Intel-based spec tested in this review, with an NVIDIA RTX 5070 GPU, is $2,799.99 $2,099.99 at the time of writing. However, an AMD-based variant with the same GPU but with lower-spec 16 GB of RAM and a lower-resolution 2.5K display currently sells for $2,099.99. Alternatively, you can find multiple HyperX OMEN variants at Best Buy.

Is the OMEN 15 well made?

If you removed the Intel, NVIDIA, and 120Hz refresh rate stickers from the OMEN 15, it would look quite plain apart from a small 'OMEN' logo on the left and a subtle "O15" branding on the bottom right. There aren't any speaker grilles on the top, and the display has a tolerable bezel that stays quite thin on the sides. It's hefty at 5.02 lbs, but it likely wouldn't spend much time on your lap.

Huge cooling vents cover the rear side of its chassis, and the same applies underneath to keep the fans moving cool air over its power-hungry CPU and GPU. Rear-facing HDMI-out and USB-C ports support external monitors and charging alternatives, while the 200W AC adapter connects to a barrel jack on the left side alongside a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port and headphone jack.

The right side features one more USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port and an Ethernet port for wired networking if you'd rather use it over the built-in Wi-Fi 7. Otherwise, the 5.7-inch mechanical touchpad is fine, though it loses physical click feedback around the top quarter. The keyboard is decent, and its sleek 4-zone RGB backlight looks quite hypnotic during gameplay.

For some reason, HyperX is another brand convinced that gamers want a number pad on their gaming laptops, so my typing experience is permanently shifted to the left. It isn't a big deal in games that mostly use the WASD keys, but everyday use feels strange. As always, I'd have much preferred larger, more powerful speakers over a few extra keys, as the audio experience is lacking in low-end bass.

How bright is the OLED display?

Using a colorimeter showed the OMEN 15 reaching 503 nits at 100% brightness without HDR, matching the 500 rating advertised by HyperX. Similarly, the OLED display scored 100% in color accuracy for the P3 gamut, and again for sRGB, with Adobe RGB scoring a respectable 92%. The screen does everything that it claims, and it looks great while it's doing it. A comfortable 250 nits rests around 66% brightness, but it can definitely go higher.

How fast is the OMEN 15?

I tested Cyberpunk 2077 at the OMEN 15's native 2880 x 1800 resolution, with the refresh rate set to its default 120 Hz, across a few graphical presets. The 'High' preset averaged 47 FPS without ray tracing after disabling resolution scaling and frame generation, which is a decent baseline for anything above 1080p. Switching the scaling option to DLSS with the 'Transformer Model' set to auto brings that up to 70 FPS without frame generation, and 111 FPS with 2X.

Using the default settings in the 'Ray Tracing: Low' preset with DLSS set to auto and frame generation at 2X, I was able to hit an average of 90 FPS in the benchmark. That gives a reasonable 40+ FPS baseline powering NVIDIA's "fake frames", and it delivers a finished product above a comfortable 60 FPS in the actual game. 'Ray Tracing: Overdrive' only just manages 32 FPS with DLSS set to performance, so tweak to your own preferences.

Elsewhere, Black Myth: Wukong without ray tracing averages 36 FPS in its dedicated benchmark tool with the 'High' preset at 100% of the OMEN 15's native resolution without frame generation, or 95 FPS when DLSS is set to 60% and frame generation is enabled. Ray tracing set to its 'medium' profile doesn't significantly wreck the DLSS-boosted performance, so the same upscaling and frame-generation combo still manages 69 FPS for a pleasing in-between.

In multiplayer titles, Counter-Strike 2 breathes easy with its 'High' visual preset at native resolution, generally maintaining over 100 FPS while spectating entire matches across various maps. It's a similar story in Apex Legends, which stays above 120 FPS with V-Sync disabled and everything else in the 'high' or 'enabled' territory. If you're into competitive shooters, you'll be quite happy with the OMEN 15 running at a smooth 120 Hz. No sweat.

Performance benchmarks

The Core Ultra 9 386H is part of Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 range, codenamed Panther Lake, with the 'H' meaning "highest performance". It's a 16-core, 16-thread mobile processor with a 20W base TDP and a boost up to 80W. Since it also includes an NPU rated up to 50 TOPS, the OMEN 15 is technically classified as a Copilot+ PC — though I doubt many PC gamers care.

Regardless, the CPU here is fast and capable, performing close to what we saw in the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo with the same chip and landing between Razer's Ryzen AI 9 365-based Blade 14 and its Ryzen AI 9 HX 370-based Blade 16. That's great company to be in, even if the OMEN 15 ever-so-slightly lags behind the Zephyrus. There's more than enough power here to back up the RTX 5070.

Speaking of NVIDIA's laptop GPU, the RTX 5070 L falls within the same margin of error as the aforementioned Blade 14 from 2025. It comes with 8GB of VRAM instead of the 12GB in its desktop equivalent or the upgraded mobile version, and this laptop chip is around 31.3% slower than a full-sized, "real" RTX 5070 — all totally normal side effects of NVIDIA's naming convention.

Finally, the PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD inside is from Samsung, delivering just under 5,000 MB/s read speeds, and closer to 4,000 MB/s write speeds. It's passable, but lower than I'd like for a laptop at this price, especially given that an entry-level Alienware 15 manages read speeds above 7,000 MB/s. The OMEN 15 never showed any perceptible signs of slow boots or sluggish disk activity, but it's worth mentioning.

Should you buy the OMEN 15?

You should buy this if ...

✅ You want an OLED gaming laptop for modern titles

✅ You're into competitive FPS and other esports games

You should not buy this if ...

❌ You're regularly playing in public places without headphones

It's telling that the OMEN 15 dropped $700 off its listing price around the time of reviews, suggesting this is the price it should have been from the beginning. It certainly feels more like a ~$1,999 gaming laptop, given the relatively mid-range GPU, though the bonus of 32GB of RAM shouldn't be ignored in this miserable era of memory shortages. That, and the OLED 120Hz display looks absolutely gorgeous.

The killer feature is that HyperX (HP) is backing up that smooth refresh rate with hardware that can actually reach it with a fitting frame rate. Sure, you have to lean on NVIDIA's DLSS suite in some games, but its RTX 50 Series benefits the most from all that anyway. It's a loud machine, though that's a recurring theme in even the best gaming laptops, and a pair of headphones lets you focus on the vibrant gameplay and ignore the lackluster speakers.

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