HP Omen 45L

A gaming PC that marries understated style with jaw-dropping power, and it makes the most of its components

- TIM DANTON

SCORE 5/5

PRICE As reviewed, £4,000 (£4,800 inc VAT) from hp.co.uk

Let there be no doubt: the HP Omen 45L is a beast. I just had to I carry this 25kg machine from one desk to another, and I'm still catching my breath. Then again, our review model is packed with seriously heavyweight components. Top of that list, and the heaviest of them all, is a GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, but it has classy companions in the form of an unlocked Intel Core i9-13900K processor and 64GB of Kingston's finest DDR5-5200 memory.

There's one more reason why this PC is so weighty: a dedicated chamber at the top of the chassis that acts as a giant radiator for the CPU's liquid cooler. HP calls this the Omen Cryo Chamber, which made its debut in last year's Omen 45L (see issue 333. p50). HP reckons it brings a 7% extra heat reduction, but perhaps its main purpose is for bragging rights. Who doesn't like Cryo Chamber being written on the side of their computer?

Style on tap

Even ignoring the Cryo Chamber, this is a computer that will attract admiring glances. The usual tempered glass side window gives an unobstructed view onto the main components, dominated by the RTX 4090 card that stretches almost the entire width of the chassis. Unlike the Chillblast Apex's RTX 4090 card (see P52), there's no RGB lighting on the edges here, with the glowing white GEFORCE RTX letters subtly accompanied by an RGB Omen diamond on the top edge.