There’s an old NBC commercial from the 1990s that showed frequently enough to be permanently etched into my memory. The ad was designed to combat the disappointment viewers felt during summers full of reruns when no new episodes aired. “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you!” it excitedly proclaimed. Well, my time with the HP OMEN 35L is reminding me a lot of that commercial.
It’s a positive association, not a negative one.
See, the last custom gaming PC I reviewed was Falcon Northwest’s 20th Anniversary Talon. That was more than 5 years ago. Back then, system builders like Origin PC, Digital Storm, Maingear, and Falcon Northwest were cranking out top-tier, meticulously engineered PCs that exuded not just quality and bleeding-edge performance, but also evoked a proud sense of ownership. You could choose an off-the-shelf gaming PC from Dell or HP, but that was considered “settling.” Those systems weren’t winning awards in the design department. And you’d frequently battle against proprietary motherboards and non-standard cases, making future upgrades or DIY repairs difficult.
Apparently, things have changed during my time away, because I’ve been in a constant state of enjoyable surprise since unboxing this system. This version of HP’s business is very much new to me! If it’s been several years since you’ve shopped for a pre-built gaming PC, I suspect HP’s OMEN desktop lineup might shatter your preconceived notions, too.
HP OMEN 35L Key Specs
It’s common for PC builders to send their flagship SKUs to reviewers, so this system represents the highest spec you can configure on HP’s website (minus optional software and extended warranty add-ons). Here’s the rundown:
- CASE: Mid-tower metal chassis with tempered glass panels
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7-8700G with Radeon 780M graphics
- CPU Cooler: OMEN 240mm liquid cooler
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 Super
- MEMORY: Kingston FURY 64GB DDR5-5200 MT/s
- PSU: Modular OMEN 1000W 80 Plus Gold
- STORAGE: Two 2TB NVMe M.2 SSDs + 2TB 7200RPM HDD (6TB total)
- PRICE at publication time: $2853.99
It’s absolutely loaded, with a price to match. But consider that bumping memory up to 64GB and housing a roomy 6TB of total storage accounts for more than $750 of that price tag. If you have existing drives and can settle for 32GB of RAM, you’ll shave a considerable amount off the overall price.
The one oddity about this build? Why choose a Ryzen CPU with integrated graphics? Furthermore, why employ that processor without any onboard video outputs for it? It’s a puzzling choice, but not one that detracts from the overall experience.
HP OMEN 35L Build Quality + Aesthetics
After unboxing the system and finding all the components still firmly seated, what immediately impressed me was the overall build quality. The black metal mid-tower case feels like it can stand up to some abuse. The etched glass panels on the front and side are tasteful, a visual portal to the striking lighting and high-end components inside.
The cable management was clean, bundled and routed to be as inconspicuous as possible. And both side panels are tool-less, a snap to slide open with two non-removable thumbscrews. Best of all, everything inside is industry standard. Yes, you can even yank out of the motherboard years from now and replace it with any standard-size micro ATX motherboard. HP isn’t locking you into replacement parts or servicing by forcing you to stay in its ecosystem, and that’s a refreshing consumer-friendly approach.
Anyway, the entire package looks and feels premium, like something the best DIY builder aspires to, and like something established boutique builders are offering.
What About The Bundled Software?
As you’ll discover, criticizing the Omen 35L’s hardware and performance will prove challenging. Finding fault with the machine’s bundled software, however, is easy. The biggest offender is McAfee, which will nag you repeatedly after the short trial expires. We now live in a world where Windows’ real-time virus and security scanning is capable of protecting users from threats. Uninstall it and enjoy one less annoying notification.
The system also includes Omen Gaming Hub, a software toolkit with a mostly pleasing aesthetic. It houses all kinds of tuning, tweaks, and status overviews. Go here to customize the array of RGB lighting, boost your memory speed, view your system-wide game library, and utilize various utilities. It has some usefulness, but it’s also littered with an egregious number of ads, especially on your home screen.
A carousel of ads for World of Tanks, Xbox Game Pass, and various other gaming deals populate the upper third of the screen. There are peripheral sales for HP gear. Offers for Nvidia GeForce Now. And seemingly an entire storefront for other platforms like Epic Games and Fanatical. I’m not opposed to this in principle; this is how retail costs often get lowered. But tone it down a bit, HP!
You can always uninstall OMEN Gaming Hub, but then you give up control of your case lighting. I had hoped to recommend two open-source alternatives for RGB lighting control — OmenMon or OpenRGB — but neither supported this system. If the software bothers you, the best course of action is probably to dial in your lighting scheme and then remove it from your Windows startup processes.
With that out of the way, let’s focus on what this beast excels at.
Can The HP OMEN 35L Handle 4K Gaming?
Yes, and it’s glorious! The OMEN 35L represents the first time in years that I’ve enjoyed newer games without any compromises. We’re talking maxed out graphics quality settings with ray tracing enabled.
I tried to find cracks in its armor, but everything I threw at it – including Black Myth Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, and Path of Exile 2 – ran like a dream at 4K resolution with all the dials for visual fidelity cranked up.
Here’s a sampling of my benchmark results. All the below were tested at 3840×2160:
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | Ultra High: Avg 96 FPS, Min 46 FPS
- Black Myth Wukong | Cinematic + Full Ray Tracing: Avg 70 FPS, Min 48 FPS
- Cyberpunk 2077 | Ray Tracing Ultra: Avg 73 FPS, Min 65 FPS
- Dirt 5 | Ultra High + Ray Traced Shadows: Avg 113 FPS, Min 74 FPS
- Forza Horizon 5 | Extreme + Ray Tracing High: Avg 123 FPS, Min 117 FPS
- Path of Exile 2 Early Access | Maximum settings: ~105 FPS to 120 FPS in Hunting Grounds area during combat.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Highest + TAA: Avg 131 FPS, Min 110 FPS
The only game to halt the nonstop 4K/60 FPS party was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which isn’t surprising given its demanding hardware requirements. But with an assist from Nvidia DLSS, it’s possible to hit 60 FPS on the High graphics preset, and if you switch to 1440p resolution, the Ultra preset becomes a viable option.
If you favor framerates over pixels, rest assured that just about anything you play on this system will hit 120 FPS at 1440p.
Greedily maxing out almost everything in your game library quickly grows addicting. I highly recommend it!
Stress Testing And Noise
While I’m not equipped to deep dive into the physics and minutiae of case cooling, I can say this with confidence: this is a startlingly quiet system given its horsepower. The OMEN team clearly did its homework.
When benchmarking games, there were no performance dips during consecutive runs. And I didn’t see any thermal throttling happening during lengthy 3DMark or FurMark 2 stress tests. At full load and pushing pixels at 4K, the OMEN 35L stayed consistently cool and quiet. It barely creeps above a whisper, and you won’t even notice the noise in a quiet room, much less with any game or media audio happening.
During a 30-minute FurMark 2 Vulkan stress test at 4K, framerate never wavered, and the GeForce 4080 Super stayed relatively cool throughout. This is a torture test that I’ve seen destroy other GPUs.
Conclusion: Highly Recommended
After my experience with this flagship HP OMEN SKU, recommending this exact build is a no-brainer, and it’s been an eye-opening experience to see how the OMEN brand itself has improved in recent years. There’s work to do on OMEN Gaming Hub, and I’d love to see less bloatware like McAfee in the future, but I’m still walking away thoroughly impressed.
Based on the build quality, performance, and efficient cooling, it’s also easy to recommend looking into the entry-level HP OMEN 35L offerings if you’re not looking to break the bank and don’t need 4K-level performance. Those currently start at $979, and you’ll also find several ready-to-ship configurations at Best Buy and Amazon targeted at both 1080p and 1440p gaming.
