I just tested the HP Omen Max 45L and it's a seriously powerful gaming PC — but it'll crush your wallet

Tom's Guide Verdict The HP Omen Max 45L is an imposing gaming PC with equally impressive performance. If you’re willing to pay its steep asking price, you’ll get a superlative gaming experience whether you’re playing small indie titles or graphically demanding AAA blockbusters. This is a gaming rig for serious gaming enthusiasts. Pros +Impressive design +Easy customization +Powerful gaming performance +Useful Gaming Hub app Cons -Pricey -Too many HP apps Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate. The HP Omen Max 45L is a towering gaming PC that commands attention and respect. Its enormous size isn’t just for show, as it justifies its imposing design with the latest flagship components. While it will certainly leave your bank account reeling, you’ll make up for it with the phenomenal gaming experience this beastly rig delivers.HP’s Cryo Chamber, located at the top, not only gives this rig a unique appearance but also keeps it running cool even under heavy load. The huge 120mm front fans also help keep components from overheating and barely make a sound. This ensures that games run at their best even during long sessions.Steep asking price aside, the HP Omen Max 45L is undoubtedly one of the best gaming PCs I’ve ever reviewed. If you can stomach the cost, there’s a lot to love about this massive gaming rig. Find out more in my full review.HP Omen Max 45L review: Cheat sheetWhat is it? The HP Omen Max 45L is a premium, flagship gaming PC.Who is it for? For folks who want an ultra-powerful gaming rig and are willing to pay big.What does it cost? The HP Omen Max 45L starts at $3,999 but is discounted to $2,999 at time of writing. As configured, our review unit is valued at $5,629.What do we like? We like the hulking, all-black design, powerful gaming performance, easy upgradeability, and smart cooling system.What don’t we like? We don’t like the gargantuan price point even for the entry-level model.HP Omen Max 45L review: Specs Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 HP Omen Max 45L (starting) HP Omen Max 45L (tested) Price $3,999 $5,629 CPU AMD Ryzen 7 9700X AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D GPU AMD Radeon RX 9070XT (16 GB) Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 (18GB) RAM 32GB 64GB Storage 2TB 2TB Ports Top: 1x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x headphone jack | Rear: 2x USB-C, 6 USB-A, 1x microphone, 1x RJ-45, 1x line-in, 1x line-out Top: 1x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x headphone jack | Rear: 2x USB-C, 6 USB-A, 1x microphone, 1x RJ-45, 1x line-in, 1x line-out Dimensions 21.85 x 18.5 x 8.03 inches 21.85 x 18.5 x 8.03 inches Weight 49.82 pounds 49.82 pounds HP Omen Max 45L review: The upsThe HP Omen Max 45L delivers high-end performance for a gaming experience with virtually no compromises. It also features a striking design and is easy to upgrade.Imposing yet practical design (Image credit: Tom's Guide)At 21.85 x 18.5 x 8.03 inches and 49.8 pounds, the HP Omen 45L is one ginormous gaming PC. The all-black aluminum chassis makes it appear even more monolithic. Despite its size, the simple box-like design gives the Omen Max 45L an air of elegance that I quite like. Yes, it’s intimidating, but it’s also beautiful. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)The clear glass panels on the front and back offer a clear view of the front RGB fans and internal components. The liquid cooler inside features an LCD that displays the CPU and GPU temperatures. The rear exhaust fan’s RGB complements the front fans’, and even the two RAM sticks have RGB lighting. I’m generally ambivalent about RGB lighting, but I’ll admit it contrasts nicely with the black chassis and adds a bit of pizzazz and fun to the design. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)As mentioned in the intro, the Omen Max 45L’s most distinguishing feature is the CPU radiator up top. Don’t mistake that gap for simple handholds; it’s designed to draw air in from the outside rather than from inside the PC and then push it out the top through three more 120mm fans. This Cryo Chamber solution is pretty clever and certainly does an excellent job of keeping the PC nice and cool.Tom's Guide: Direct to Your InboxGet instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Accessing the interior of the Omen Max 45L is simple thanks to the toolless chassis. The only requirement is pressing the “Internal Access” button on the glass side panel, which opens outward so you can remove it. This also lets you open the panel with the Omen logo on the other side, which is convenient. The PC supports industry-standard parts, so you can configure the Max 45L however you wish. There’s plenty of room inside, making upgrades seamless. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Naturally, this giant PC has all the ports you could ever need and then some. On the top, you’ll find a lone USB-C port, a pair of USB-A ports, and a headphone jack. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Over on the back, you’ll find two more USB-C ports and six USB-A ports. Accessing the ports can be tricky given the Omen Max 45L’s size and weight, but it’s a fair trade-off for so much I/O.Killer performance (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Our HP Omen 45L review unit came configured with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU, an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU, and 64GB of RAM. Thanks to that configuration, it delivers exceptional gaming performance in even the most demanding PC games without needing to tweak graphics and video settings. This is about as powerful as you can get.I tested Cyberpunk 2077 at 6K resolution with the default graphics settings and got the game to run at a consistent 65-75 frames per second, which is great for such a demanding title. At 4K resolution, the frame rates hovered in the '80s and '90s, which is even smoother. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Doom: The Dark Ages was similarly impressive, running at 65-70 fps on default graphics at 4K resolution. When I enabled DLSS 4.5’s frame-boosting and the Ultra Performance setting, the fps jumped to a staggering 400! That’s a great match for the Asus ROG Swift OLED, which tops out at 330Hz. Even if you’re not a professional gamer, you’ll feel the difference in frame rates. Swipe to scroll horizontally Gaming performance (@ 4K) Row 0 - Cell 0 HP Omen Max 45L Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced 63 fps Doom: The Dark Ages 57 fps Cyberpunk 2077 33 fps We saw equally impressive results when we put several games through our lab tests, which use each game’s built-in benchmark tools. As you can see above, the games we tested generally ran great at max graphics settings and 4K resolution.Naturally, the Omen 45L has no issues handling everyday productivity tasks. Even when I had nearly 30 Chrome tabs open and a YouTube video playing, this PC kept going without slowing down or stuttering. Swipe to scroll horizontally Performance benchmarks Row 0 - Cell 0 HP Omen Max 45L Geekbench 6 (single/multi-core) 3423 / 20518 HandBrake (mins:secs) 1:48 Our lab tests corroborate my anecdotal experience. On Geekbench 6, which tests overall CPU performance, the HP Omen 45L delivered strong single-core and multi-core scores. It also performed great in HandBrake, where it took 1 minute and 48 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p.Omen Gaming Hub (Image credit: Tom's Guide)The Omen Gaming Hub comes pre-installed and is easily the most useful of HP’s included apps and services for this PC. This is where you can customize and fine-tune things like the 45L’s RGB lighting and performance. Omen AI automatically adjusts performance settings for games like Marvel Rivals and Fortnite (among others).One of my favorite returning Omen Hub features is the ability to connect to other Omen peripherals and devices. So if you have Omen keyboards, headsets, or even a monitor, you can control their respective lighting and other features via the Omen Hub.HP Omen Max 45L review: The downsThe HP Omen Max 45L doesn’t disappoint when it comes to gaming performance, but you’ll have to accept some drawbacks for that experience.Extraneous appsThe Omen Gaming Hub is undoubtedly great and rather useful, but I can’t say the same about most of the other bundled-in apps in the Omen 45L.Like the HP Omen 35L, you get the usual apps like HP Smart, myHP, and HP Support. That’s not egregious, but the Adobe and Dropbox promotions seem superfluous. You can safely ignore most of these apps, but having so many that you likely won’t use isn’t ideal.Expensive (Image credit: Tom's Guide)There’s no denying that the HP Omen 45L is a god-like gaming PC. It’s exactly the kind of rig I would want to own, delivering superlative performance while looking stylish. But though I’m infatuated with this beast of a machine, it’s a tough recommendation due to its wallet-busting asking price.The $3,999 asking price for the entry-level model, which features lower-end (but still great) components, is already a tough pill to swallow. If you want a rig with the same specs as the one I reviewed, that’ll set you back $5,629. Then there’s the top-of-the-line build, which comes in at an eye-watering $6,499!I’m not going to knock HP for these prices, given that high-end rigs were never exactly cheap even before RAMageddon drove up component costs. Still, if you’re really set on the Omen 45L, you’d better start saving now. It’ll be worth it, but the cost will certainly sting for most people.HP Omen Max 45L review: VerdictThere’s no denying that the HP Omen Max 45L is a hulking gaming PC that can run demanding games without breaking a sweat. Sure, it’s very expensive, but the various configurations and easy customization mean you’re getting your money’s worth, especially over the long haul.When I think about the ideal gaming PC, this is exactly the kind of rig that springs to mind. If you can afford it, you won’t be disappointed by the HP Omen Max 45L. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Tony is a computing writer at Tom’s Guide covering laptops, tablets, Windows, and iOS. During his off-hours, Tony enjoys reading comic books, playing video games, reading speculative fiction novels, and spending too much time on X/Twitter. His non-nerdy pursuits involve attending Hard Rock/Heavy Metal concerts and going to NYC bars with friends and colleagues. His work has appeared in publications such as Laptop Mag, PC Mag, and various independent gaming sites. 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