HP Omen 25L PC Review: a fast gaming PC with big flaws

Pros

• modular off-the-rack components
• gorgeous aesthetic
• Fast Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU

Cons

• frightful airflow and temperature management

  Reading: HP Omen 25L PC Review: a fast gaming PC with big flaws

• Flimsy motherboard
• Feature-starved casing

While the HP Omen 25 has powerful internals, its questionable build-quality hampers performance .

About the HP Omen 25L

recognition : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar The HP Omen 25L ‘s CPU Cooler is beautiful, but the come of air it pushes barely amounts to a thrill .

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• CPU Cooler: HP Omen proprietary heatsink
• Memory: HyperX Fury 8GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM
• Memory Slots: 2 DIMM up to 16GB DDR4-3200MHz
• Storage: Western Digital Black 256GB PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD
• Motherboard: HP ATX Moria 3 87C3 AMD B450
• Front Ports: 2 x USB 3.0 Type A; 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack; 1 x 3.5mm microphone jack
• Back Ports (Motherboard): 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2; 1 x USB C 3.0; 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1; 1 x Ethernet; 1 x 3.5mm microphone jack; 1 x 3.5mm audio out jack; 1 x 3.5mm audio in jack
• Back Ports (Graphics card): 1 x HDMI 2.0; 3 x DisplayPort
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition Custom Graphics Card
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5
• Power Supply: Cooler Master Bronze 500W ATX Power Supply
• Weight: 25.3 pounds
• Dimensions: 6.5 x 15.53 x 17.05 in
• Accessories: HP wired Keyboard and Mouse combo
• Warranty: One-year limited warranty

The HP Omen 25L is a midsize modular tugboat gaming personal computer, meaning it offers enough of documentation for aftermarket hardware and accessories. We tested what we consider to be the best prize configuration that you can buy send from HP, although the Omen 25L can be configured with an Intel processor and other graphics cards in the Nvidia GeForce family .
Like all off-the-rack PCs, it comes in full built, but the inside can be accessed and modified by removing the glass side jury .

What we like

Most of its parts are easily reusable or replaceable

credit : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar By presses the “ Internal Access ” push button on the rear of the personal computer, you can remove the glass side empanel and entree all the hardware inside the case .
When you ’ rhenium buying a standalone personal computer, you have three options : an all-in-one where the personal computer is built into the display ( like the iMac ), a DIY tugboat where you pick out and meet all the components yourself, or a fully pre-built personal computer ( like the Omen 25L ) from a manufacturer .
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When it comes to prebuilt PCs, there is a surprise sum of division in how modular the parts are. thankfully, the HP Omen 25L is easy to modify with aftermarket or surrogate parts down the pipeline. Every part in the personal computer is replaceable, although you will need to make sure they fit in the quite slender case. We were barely able to squeeze in an EVGA Supernova 850W ATX exponent supply ( a.k.a a big chunky model ), which may be necessary if you wanted to add a more powerful GPU down the line .
More importantly, many of its replaceable parts aren ’ thymine necessarily worth replacing for most people. Its Ryzen 5 3600 CPU is an excellent processor, as is its Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU and its HyperX Fury RAM. Because we got a model with 8GB of RAM, we would recommend getting another 8GB RAM module to fit into the motherboard ’ s moment RAM slot .
While we did replace the power provide to see how complicate it would be, the Omen ’ sulfur included office provide is decent—the 80+ Bronze Efficiency 500W Cooler Master PSU it comes with will be batch of office for demanding AAA games. The Bronze rat means that it is over eighty percentage efficient at drawing baron, which keeps your power draw from spiking besides high and helps your office supply and personal computer components last long ( as spikes can reduce their life ) .

It has a nice aesthetic

credit : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar The RGB lighting on the presence logo, the CPU fan, and the top of the case are fully customizable .
While the Omen 25L doesn ’ t have the most alone aesthetic out there, it ’ south hard to deny that it ’ sulfur beautiful. The front ball field lights up with an RGB header that ’ s in full customizable on HP ’ s Omen Gaming Center software, although it looks beautiful as the nonpayment frosty white as good. The stock CPU cooler and the top of the case besides have customizable RGB lighting to make your Omen sincerely yours .
The darkness gunmetal end on the front panel paired with the field glass slope control panel give the Omen the “ crippled ” edge that RGB fans love, but it ’ s besides classy adequate to please those who prefer a more mortify aesthetic. When you look through the glass gore, the insides of the personal computer look clean and jerk thanks to the tucked away cables and all-black components .

It can run 4K games at reasonable frame rates

credit rating : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar The RTX 3070 ‘s custom-made sheet is thin and light, letting the GPU blend into the background of the subject .
With an Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU and an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, it ’ mho no surprise that the HP Omen 25L is a capable gambling machine. You should have fiddling trouble running 1080p games at very high skeletal system rates, and even most 4K games will run at or above 60 frames per second. The grotesquely demand game Cyberpunk 2077 run at about 45 frames per second gear at 4K with re tracing enabled ( if you ’ re fresh to ray tracing, it ’ s a power-hungry way of generating shadows and reflections that makes games look more realistic than always ) .
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meanwhile, Shadow of the Tomb Raider averaged about 47 frames per second gear at 4K highest graphics, and Overwatch systematically hovered around 150 frames per moment on 4K highest graphics. Unless you ’ rhenium running Microsoft Flight Simulator in VR on its most realistic graphics settings, you probably won ’ t run into trouble with the RTX 3070 .
For more varied tasks, the Omen ’ s Ryzen 5 processor is fantastic. Streaming, movie edit, and multitasking are all legato and painless. In Cinebench R23, the Omen 25L scored a respectable 9,150 points, which puts it close to Intel ’ second premium Core i7 10700 CPU. Unless you ’ re a consecrated banner or patronize 3D energizer, you probably won ’ t even get close to maxing out the Ryzen 5 ’ second capabilities .

What we don’t like

It underperforms because of terrible cooling

credit : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar The merely fans the personal computer comes with are the one on the CPU cool and the one on the rear. There is a vent where the power supply ‘s cables lie, although it is small. The top vent has a shroud over it for SATA drives, not fans. You will need to mod the event somehow to make your own fan mounts .
unfortunately, there are a lot of issues with the HP Omen 25L, and it all starts with its underwhelming cool performance. While the personal computer is clearly capable of timbre 4K gambling, many elements in the HP Omen 25L hold back the brawny hardware ’ s potential, leaving both the Ryzen 5 and RTX 3070 to perform under expectations by 5 % or more .
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Within a minute of booting up Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the CPU ’ second temperatures surpass 85 degrees Celsius and the GPU peaks at 93 degrees Celsius—way, way excessively hot for condom performance, let entirely optimum performance. past 95 degrees Celsius, the CPU and GPU can both sustain thermal damage, and keeping close to 95 degrees will wear away at their lives much more cursorily .
The main return is that the cooling system is inadequate for the potent CPU and GPU, despite the case being large enough. Let ’ s compare the 25-liter Omen 25L ’ mho thermal performance to my personal small shape factor ( SFF ) personal computer, built in a 7-liter DAN A4 font. normally, more liters mean more air to cool a personal computer, so you should expect SFF PCs to run hotter than their larger counterparts. At idle, both the DAN ’ second and the HP Omen ’ south components are about 40 degrees. When running OCCT, a benchmarking software, the HP Omen takes about 30 seconds for its CPU to climb to 95 degrees .
interim, the DAN ’ s water-cooled CPU never surpassed 72 degrees when it ran the same benchmark for a full moment. Mind you, 72 degrees is still hot, and it has an unfair advantage with water cool, but the HP Omen ’ s 25-liter casing is more than large enough to accommodate a similarly effective cooling system to keep the temperatures at least below 75 degrees ( and ideally below 70 degrees ) .
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credit rating : Reviewed / Adrien Ramirez The 7 liter DAN A4 case has airflow vents covering four of its six faces. interim, the 25 liter HP Omen personal computer has three vents .
so, if the “ big ” HP Omen 25L is sol big, why does it run so hot ? Well, size international relations and security network ’ t everything : the HP Omen ’ s broth cool and standard case fan press far excessively little air travel to cool everything inside the personal computer. Because of the shell ’ s structure, the GPU and PSU receive inadequate airflow, and the case overall has negative airflow ( which means it ’ s pushing hot air out without pulling cold air in ). There are identical few vents around the case—just one on exceed, one adjacent to ( but not below ! ) the PSU, and one where the rear fan is located. The two movement grilles are only cosmetic .
furthermore, there are excessively few spots to improve the Omen ’ s cooling situation yourself. The merely cool saddle horse is the one occupied by the raise shell sports fan, thus adding extra fans means you ’ ll have to DIY mounts with energy ties. This international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate convention. The average personal computer character has at least three fan mounts, and a commodity one will have more. If the Omen had mounts for water cooling—which is an excellent choice for belittled, air-restricted cases—then it would make the airflow site less serious, but there are no mounts .

The case is starved for features, air, and ergonomics

credit : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar With no cooling mounts, few vents, and no places to hide cables, this case falls behind many budget cases on the market nowadays .
aside from the cooling position mentioned above, the Omen 25L has many other oversights with its case. The glass panel is thankfully simple to remove ( just press a boastfully release on the top of the rear panel ), but the front, top, and side panels require a set more wangle. additionally, if you need to swap out components with cables, like the world power supply, removing the banal cables and organizing any new cables was more harass than I ’ m used to with PC cases—it required a lot of tight weaving around the case in hopes of hiding the cables without squeezing them. last, because of the case ’ sulfur negative airflow and its non-removable dust filters, cleaning it will be debatable in the farseeing run .
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Considering you can get an excellent case these days for under a hundred dollars, it wouldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate be excessive to fair ditch this character. aside from the aesthetics, it doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate offer anything that you can ’ metric ton find elsewhere, and it ’ s missing a lot of features that will make your life easier—removable dust filters, plenty of air vents, fan and cooling mounts, movable risers and mounts, and a dedicate PSU compartment .

The motherboard is disturbingly flimsy

credit : Reviewed / Adrien Ramirez The back of the motherboard is covered in residue. There are several rails exposed on the front .
While the exponent add, CPU, GPU chip, RAM, and SSD are all made by other companies, the motherboard is HP ’ s own handicraft. At first, I was annoyed to find entirely one M.2 slot on it ( many boards have two or more slots for your SSDs ) and not equally much RAM potential as I ’ vitamin d hop, but I cursorily found more dangerous faults with the motherboard. The sloppy bonding, dirty back and exposed rails leave the user with ample opportunity to fry or bend something on the motherboard. however, the worst offense is its flimsiness .
Some unconvincing or cheap components are honestly to be expected in prebuilt PCs, but the motherboard is the most important component of a personal computer, and this motherboard is so bendable that I was authentically worry about breaking it every clock I plugged or unplugged a connection on it. No one should ever worry about breaking parts by using them as intended, and specially not worry about one of a personal computer ’ s most critical components .

Underwhelming software package and accessories

credit : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar HP should have included better peripherals, considering they make firm mouse and keyboards .
If HP cheaped out on the personal computer ’ s most critical features, it shouldn ’ triiodothyronine be a surprise the extras and accessories were little more than an reconsideration. The motherboard ’ s BIOS doesn ’ metric ton have much on it, so you can ’ metric ton mess with your components ’ operation. meanwhile, the HP Omen Command Center software is more a marketplace than a control center, with the alone personal computer settings rightfully modifiable being the RGB lights. You can besides monitor the CPU and GPU temperatures. Woo .
If you were hoping to save on a keyboard and sneak buy, you ’ ll be disappointed to know the Omen ’ sulfur included ones are less than adequate for gaming. HP packs a basic wire mouse and keyboard that were uncomfortable for me after a half hour, let alone a day, and they ’ ra not customizable .
thankfully, good gambling mouse and keyboards are bum these days. If you need a recommendation, this Havit mechanical keyboard and bet on mouse jazz band is an amazing choice for those on a budget .

Recommended upgrades and modifications

credit : Reviewed / Adrien Ramirez There are batch of comfortable mods to make in the HP Omen 25L. One of the most significant mods you can make is to swap the CPU cool ; the correct photograph shows the stock cool adjacent to a Noctua NH-D9L cool .
If you can find a more fully-featured prebuilt personal computer with an RTX 3070, by all means go for it. however, if you ’ re in sleep together with the HP Omen 25L ’ second aesthetic ( that ’ s carnival ) or you equitable can ’ triiodothyronine find a better personal computer for sale around you, then there is a draw you can do to improve the experience. That ’ s the smasher of modular PCs .
For the HP Omen 25L, we recommend you upgrade the CPU cool and case fan ASAP. Cooling is this personal computer ’ sulfur greatest flaw, and fan coolers are not expensive. You should be able to replace the raise sports fan with any standard 92mm sports fan out there. We chose to go with the Noctua 92mm NF-B9 redux fan to replace the rear casing fan, which is calm, brawny, and relatively low-cost .
For the CPU cooler, you will need a cooler that fits an AM4 bracket ( this is the ride that AMD Ryzen 3rd and 4th gen CPUs use ), is no more than 135mm tall, and has a 35mm RAM headroom ( your RAM clearance must be at least the height of your RAM modules ; we ’ ve provided you with the HyperX Fury ’ second altitude, but make sure to check your RAM ’ s acme if you replace the Omen ’ s stock module ). We went with the Noctua NH-D9L CPU cooler, which is 110mm tall and very easy to install .
american samoa far as performance and features go, the Omen 25L ’ second case is nothing to write home about. There are a lot of excellent and fashionable cases for reasonable prices these days, like the $ 50 Cooler Master Masterbox Q300L or the pricier $ 115 Cooler Master NR200P .
other easy upgrades to make admit adding more RAM ( up to 2 x 16GB of 3200MHz RAM is supported ), upgrading the 256GB SSD to 512GB or more ( PCIe gen 3 is supported ), adding a SATA SSD or HDD, or getting a beefier world power supply ( make certain it ’ sulfur no more than 125 millimeter wide-eyed and 85mm improbable ). HWMonitor can help you monitor your personal computer ’ randomness stats in greater detail, and under-clocking or under-volting your hardware can help it run cooler for more longevity. We don ’ triiodothyronine think it ’ sulfur worth upgrading the CPU or GPU unless you plan to do something super might hungry ( as in you ’ re an engineer or professional contentedness godhead ), at which point a fully custom build is probable warranted .

Should you buy the HP Omen 25L?

Maybe, if you can find it on sale or you desperately want an Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card.

credit : Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar Considering the HP Omen 25L has 25 liters to work with, we were disappointed with how fiddling HP did to take advantage of the space .
overall, the HP Omen 25L presents a beautiful game personal computer that will be the envy of your adolescent friends : it can run demanding 4K and VR games with stunning graphics, its RGB is gorgeous, and its hardware will stay relevant for many years to come. Should you outgrow the venerable Nvidia RTX 3070 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, you can easily swap them out thanks to the personal computer ’ s modular design. You are bound to nothing in this build, and you won ’ thyroxine wage a premium for it .
however, we have good long-run lastingness concerns that likely can ’ thyroxine be solved without swapping to a new event. Because the human body didn ’ thymine bother cutting corners ( I mean this metaphorically and literally : the components ’ corners are acuate where they could ’ ve been rounded out ), there are a lot of jag edges that pierce through the personal computer ’ s likely. The perilously sparse motherboard feels like it could snap, and the lack of airflow leaves the hardware running near-critical temperatures. You can modify the personal computer to improve its shortcomings, but you ’ d ultimately have to replace its two identify components ( the event and the motherboard ) if you safely want to do anything flush moderately taxing .
If you ’ rhenium golden enough to choose which prebuilt personal computer you can buy these days, we recommend a personal computer with off-the-rack personal computer parts and batch of cooling thus that you can have a quality computer you can upgrade down the line. The MSI Aegis RS and the CyberPower PC Gamer Supreme desktops are both builds that meet these requirements ( and look cool for a reasonable monetary value ). custom-built PCs—like those from Microcenter or Origin PC—will cost more, unfortunately, but you can have more control over the details of your hardware .
In a perfect populace, we would probably recommend those hunting for an Nvidia 3070 GPU look elsewhere. however, considering the shortages may not be over until well into 2022, we don ’ t think the HP Omen 25L should be avoided entirely. At MSRP, the Omen 25L is reasonably priced, and you will get a 4K-ready calculator out of the box that will work barely fine in the short-change terminus. It ’ second designed to look well in a retail storehouse : it has the aesthetic invoke many gamers want, and it will run well enough. however, those who know better will promptly find some good faults, and if you plan to keep it long term you should budget for a new event at least .
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Prices were accurate at the clock time this article was published but may change over clock .

Meet the tester

Adrien Ramirez

Staff Writer

@itsaramkat
Adrien is a staff writer for Reviewed, chiefly focused on reviewing laptops and early consumer technical school. During his free fourth dimension, he ‘s normally wandering around Hyrule .

See all of Adrien Ramirez’s reviews

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