HP Omen 35L Desktop Review: A Proper Little Challenger to Lenovo’s Best

Pros

• Classy, RGB-lit design
• Effective cooling with dust filtration on the intakes
• Strong 4K performance

Cons

• Memory and storage upgrades are overpriced
• AMD CPU is a nonsensical pairing
• Unimpressive port selection, though good quantity

HP has a curious beast on its hands with the HP Omen 35L. It’s a stylish machine with a compact chassis packing in any number of components and dousing them all in RGB lighting. HP has done smart work with the case, with effective airflow and useful filtration. The top configuration tested here proved a strong performer overall, but its CPU leaves a lot of performance on the table. HP also charges quite a bit above the market rate for storage and memory, pushing this machine to $3,314 as configured. 

However, there’s the potential of good value to be had here, particularly if you opt out of extra storage and memory and instead perhaps buy them as aftermarket upgrades. The Omen 35L even proves competitive with the excellent Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 34IRZ8 at its higher configurations and the value-friendly Lenovo Legion Tower 5i Gen 8 at its lower configurations. That’s a commendable position to be in, as Lenovo’s systems tend to be considerable threats for their performance and value. HP has style and performance on lock, but choosing a smart configuration is key to getting a good value here.   

Note: The 2TB SATA hard drive in our test PC doesn’t appear in HP’s configuration tool.

The HP Omen 35L is a highly configurable machine. It starts out at a modest $1,299, and that will get you a Ryzen 5 8500G, 16GB of DDR5-5200 memory, 512GB PCIe NVMe SSE, Radeon RX 7600 graphics card, 120mm CPU air cooler and a 500-watt 80 Plus Bronze power supply. That configuration also comes with a metal front panel. 

HP offers upgrades to the CPU, memory, storage, graphics card, power supply, cooling, networking card and an optional glass front panel. The model tested here is essentially the top configuration at $3,314. It includes a Ryzen 7 8700G processor, 64GB of memory, RTX 4080 Super, 1,000-watt 80 Plus Gold power supply, 240mm liquid cooler and an upgraded Wi-Fi 7 networking card. There are also major storage upgrades compared with the base model: two 2TB NVMe SSDs and a 2TB hard drive. However, as of this writing, we didn’t see that hard drive as an option from HP, so we’re not sure what effect it has on the price. 

For the most part, the configuration as tested is good. It’s largely competitive with the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8, so there’s value here with the HP. Where HP’s test configuration goes awry is its memory and storage upgrades. The memory upgrade from 16GB to 32GB is $90 and a pricey $260 to go up to a reduced-speed 64GB. To put that in perspective, you can get 64GB of RGB-lit, higher-speed DDR5 memory for $200. HP also wants $368 for a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, which is more than double what you can find a comparable drive for online. Dropping the storage and memory upgrades and opting instead for a 512GB boot drive and 16GB of memory, the system comes down to a much more competitive $2,407.

Graphical might is chained to an underperformer

The HP Omen 35L, as tested, has a lot of performance to offer in its compact chassis. The RTX 4080 Super tucked inside takes up every inch available to it, and it’s ready to pump out high-end graphics at fast frame rates. The catch is, HP has made the confounding choice to pair it with a CPU that’s not ready to fully unleash it. The Ryzen 7 8700G is not on the level of the RTX 4080 Super and readily becomes a bottleneck at 1080p. 

Not only does the Ryzen 7 8700G have its own, enhanced integrated graphics sitting idle on the chip, but it also offers limited PCIe bandwidth to the graphics card. Ultimately, this hasn’t proven to be a considerable issue right now, but it could be as bandwidth requirements to the GPU expand in the future. 

I saw frame rates that readily surpass the playable mark when benchmarking at 1080p, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Riftbreaker and Guardians of the Galaxy all exceeding 100fps averages by a wide margin. However, these results lagged well behind what the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 can do with its own RTX 4080 Super. The CPU is plainly the culprit since in CPU benchmarks the HP Omen 35L falls considerably behind the Legion system’s Intel Core i9-14900KF. Switching to 4K, however, the Omen 35L loses little in terms of frame rates since this is more of a GPU test. Shadow of the Tomb Raider drops from a 173.5fps average at 1080p to 132fps at 4K. Guardians of the Galaxy goes from 146fps average at 1080p to 139 at 4K, both respectable numbers.

There is some sense in opting for a modest CPU to go with a powerful GPU if you plan to game at high settings and resolutions, which are more reliant on GPU power. Doing so can save you a bit of money by opting for a lower-tier component that’s rarely going to be taxed by games. But HP should offer the option for a better CPU pairing for those gamers who might want to play at 1080p and desire ultra-high frame rates over resolution. 

Outside of that, the system is quite consistent. Running 3DMark’s Steel Nomad stress test, the Omen 35L managed 98% consistency, seeing scores range from 6471 to 6342. The CPU’s temperature rose gradually and leveled off just below 60 degrees Celsius by the end of the test. The GPU heated up more rapidly but leveled off at about 70 degrees Celsius. Even under that heavy load, the Omen 35L was surprisingly quiet, though you can hear the fans whirring away. 

It’s a looker with RGB at every turn

HP has gone all-in with the looks of the Omen 35L. Just about every aspect that could have RGB LEDs has RGB LEDs. Two fans pull in fresh air through slits on the front and two more cool a 240mm radiator. One more fan exhausts air out the back and all glow brilliantly with RGB lighting. The pump on the CPU is emblazoned with Omen, glowing in the middle with a square border. The memory sticks all have RGB lighting. The RTX 4080 Super has a square on the back plate sparkling with RGB lights of its own. It’s one hell of a light show, and much of it is readily customizable in HP’s Omen Gaming Hub. That said, the graphics card lighting doesn’t show up in HP’s app, leaving it at odds with any styles you might choose. The memory’s lighting does show up in a section separate from the fans and water block, but changes I made in the program never took effect. 

HP packs it all in tight with a case that actually measures 35 cubic liters, as its name suggests. It manages to fit an mATX motherboard inside and effectively squeezes triple-slot graphics inside with little room to spare. The graphics card slightly blocks the lower intake fan, but it creates a chamber for air to flow into its fans and then vent out into the upper chamber. The top intake fan pushes that heated air out the back and up through the two radiator fans. It’s good to see effective airflow, especially in a compact machine. Even better, the intake fans are covered in a fine metal mesh to keep dust and debris out — something neglected in too many desktops I’ve seen recently. 

Beyond the lighting, the interior of the system is also decently stylish. HP went with a black PCB for the motherboard that matches the black chassis nicely. Cables are largely tucked out of sight. While VRM heatsinks and a shroud for the rear I/O would have been a welcome improvement, these elements aren’t horribly unsightly. All of this neatness is on display behind a glass side panel. It’s a nice step up from the rather ugly interior I saw in Lenovo’s competing Legion Tower 5i Gen 8, which had bare memory sticks, a lid-less motherboard chipset, and cables everywhere. 

While the HP Omen 35L has a decent number of ports, I find they’re hardly an impressive assortment for a desktop that costs over $3,000. It has a smattering of USB-A ports, with none topping 5Gbps. There are only two USB-C ports, but those top out at 10Gbps. USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and USB4 are nowhere to be found. Oddly, the system also lacks a standard HDMI or DisplayPort connection on the motherboard despite HP only opting for CPUs that have more advanced integrated graphics. The USB-C ports both support DisplayPort output, but more options can be helpful. The system also has just Gigabit ethernet rather than 2.5GbE, which is becoming more popular on high-end machines. 

So in all, the Omen 35L is an attractive package that can be a good value, as long as you prefer 4K gaming and configure it correctly or at least don’t mind adding aftermarket memory and storage.