HP’s OMEN X Desktop is an angry cube of gaming power
Gaming lineup grows with powerhouse PC straight out of sci-fi
A new gaming PC, you say? From HP, you say?
Yes, we know: HP are hardly top of the list for serious gaming hardware – but that’s changing. Having launched its OMEN laptop back in May, the American manufacturer is now focussing on the desktop market – and, boy, has it come up with a cracker.
It looks like something from outer-space…
Of course it does. If a gaming PC doesn’t look like a glowing slab of alien hardware, is it even a gaming PC?
Thankfully, that’s not a question the OMEN X Desktop has to grapple with. HP’s desktop dominator is styled like a monstrous megalithic cube, standing on one shiny point so as to expose every side to cooling air.
It can’t have been easy to cram in components?
Actually, HP’s engineers took the opportunity to create three clever chambers, keeping processors, hard drives and the power supply in separate, independently cooled spaces.
The result is breezy box that fights buffering with the power of cool air – courtesy of a proliferation of fans, vents, exhausts and radiators littering the OMEN’s core.
Is it as powerful as it looks?
You bet it is. The top-end 900-030 model is stocked with a 6th-generation Intel i7 chip, 16GB of super-speedy RAM and 8GB of dedicated graphics card memory. Essentially, it’s powerful. Really, really powerful.
It’ll easily support 4K gaming, whilst an AMD Radeon R9 graphics card in the 010 model is tuned for properly muscular VR play.
Where to start › How to build a VR-ready gaming PC
What about upgrades?
HP wants to make things easy for incessant tinkerers, so it’s switched from using proprietary parts to standard components – meaning you’ll be able to screw in neon fans at will. Access to the box is a tool-free affair, too.
There’s also the option to buy the OMEN X as a barebones chassis, ready to bit fitted, furnished and finessed by those with the requisite know-how.
OK, I’m ready – what’s the damage?
Shaped like a diamond and priced to match, the OMEN is really one for the committed gamers.
Available from today through HP’s online store, the basic OMEN X chassis will set you back a tasty US$600, whilst pre-built boxes will start at an overdraft-emptying US$1800. Better get saving, then.
Chris Rowlands
Freelance contributor 
