The Fatal Flaw in HP's Omen 45L broke me

HP promised to shake up the PC industry with an innovative new CPU cooler design, and I was this close to declaring it the new gaming performance king of prebuilts...

Buy OMEN 45L Gaming Desktop

Buy Intel Core i9-12900K Desktop Processor

Buy NVIDIA RTX 3090

Buy Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB V2

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

AFFILIATES & REFERRALS
---------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW US ELSEWHERE
---------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW OUR OTHER CHANNELS
---------------------------------------------------

MUSIC CREDIT
---------------------------------------------------
Title: Laszlo - Supernova

CHAPTERS
---------------------------------------------------
0:00 Intro
1:18 Specs and design theory
2:27 A quick physical tour
4:02 HP's hardware claims and some history
4:43 Testing the Cryo Chamber
6:48 Gaming and workstation performance
8:18 Predictably, HP does what HP does
9:25 Comparing against XMP
10:17 Conclusion

[LinusTechTips]

Hey folks! We've heard complaints that our Overall Performance Graphs at 10:10 are misleading, and we are deeply sorry about it. Starting axis values at 0 is our policy, but these graphs slipped through the cracks. It is not our intention to mislead the audience, and we hope that you'll forgive us for this oversight.

[HecklerUK]

OK, you got me with the HPenis line... well played to which ever writer/editor did that.

[Verlisify]

Why do companies keep having such weird issues with their pre-builds

[mrwhiskers]

Hey LTT,
Can you try ripping out all the hp parts and build a PC in their case using off the shelf parts.
Compare it with a similar size conventional case to compare the real gains of a case like this?

[slinkytrips]

For those wondering the unpainted bits are part of the Faraday cage of the case. As a mass market device HP have to meet radio frequency regulations from the FCC and others. A fully metal case would do this but they wanted a glass window. As glass has no shielding properties they need to put a special coating on the glass which is then bonded to the metal frame, that metal frame has to make contact with the rest of the case hence the lack of paint. Case manufacturers who sell just an empty case with no electronics don't have to meet these regulations but your PC will be susceptible to interference without proper shielding.

[kyslem]

I’d suggest building a separate control rig in a “normal” case an do the benchmarks. Then build that same pc in this case and repeat them. This way you can leave HP’s bull out of the equation and test the case’s cryo chamber’s performance on it’s own

[YoureWierdImNt]

If they just did things "normally" then this would be a hard system to beat as a prebuilt. Even as an out of the box run and gun user would have a spectacular system. Especially considering the GPU is 60% of the cost of the system anyway.

[mycosys]

I dont see how HP can patent something people were doing from the beginning of water cooling (external rad mounting). At the very least other manufacturers can make a rad chamber that looks identical but just screws on like old school rads.

[MichaelWhittmann]

I have an Omen X desktop. I bought it day one when I found out Voodoo designed the case. I've had it for years and no problems. Still running AAA titles to this day in 4k. I've never loved a PC so much. HP does make great computers when they want to, I'd have to say.

[emlyndewar]

Cool that they patented it, so this is the only case choice with this. Will be even more awesome when they stop with this case design after a couple years. Great for consumers.

[MuitoDaora]

Good luck for HP enforcing the patent.
Just because the radiator have its own air path?🤣🤣🤣

[chandanpuri]

Wow, HP can get a patent on mounting a radiator in a separate enclosure on the top of a case. Such innovative and difficult to conceive of solutions surely require protection!

[wodstalker]

Hp : no compromise cooling 😱
Also Hp : here, have this super restrictive glass front panel that totally dont destroy intake

[XDSDDLord]

You forgot to mention that they are choking their 3090 with a giant front glass panel blocking the intake so it can't boost as high. I wish you tested it without the front panel like GN does to show just how stupid that is. Personally I won't buy any case that blocks airflow like that on principle. They created a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

[anotherSportsCarEnthusiast]

I know you guys uninstalled all the HP software, but in the "omen gaming hub", they have option to overclock ram. It did big difference in my 30L went from 3200mhz to 3467mhz.

[kiwimonster]

Weird and more difficult solution for a problem that could have been solved easier. I'm also waiting for Steve's tests and opinion on this. But preps for HP being non-proprietary

[JohnDoe-qcbo]

I thought a fatal flaw would be something that was failing in a lot of these really. It is still a flaw, just a disappointing one. It is one reason I like to build my own PC even though the god damned miners and scalpers are making it really hard to do that.

[nikanj]

I suspect these decisions were very much intentional. By enforcing power limit and not enabling XMP they probably reduced the annual failure rate a tiny bit. And people buying these systems will probably not notice.

[Blackternity]

Funny how this case gave me flashbacks to the era of 2006 where you could buy seperate case-addons for watercooling or Chiller-Units that went below or on top of your case to do exactly what HP now has patented...

[thexgamer]

HP: *This is the PC with the best cooler right now.*

Linus: *We’ll see about that, just like you’ll see our sponsors.*