==== Summary ==== The HP Omen by Obelisk desktop PC is a great-looking, powerful, well-built, and fantastic gaming system~! With its powerful components inside, the Omen can run pretty much all the games at their max visual settings (depending on your monitor resolution, of course). However, future upgrade path is a bit limited and the cooling performance is slightly lacking. All in all, though, it's a great gaming PC and I love it. *Pros: -Cool angular black design with glass sidepanel. -Quality materials & build quality. -Excellent fit-and-finish. -LED color and lighting animation control. -Powerful components (Intel Core i7 8700, nVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, 16GB DDR4, SSD boot drive). -nvidia RTX 2080 = gaming bliss and full eyecandy mode. -Lots of USB ports - USB Type C & USB Type A 3.1 Gen 2 included~! -Pretty quiet for a gaming PC. -Compact footprint makes it easy to place. -Pretty lightweight. *Neutral: -Supports only 2x SATA-3 hard drives & requires right-angle SATA-3 cables. -Only one small 80mm rear cooling fan. -Top vent is mostly blocked off by a plate. -Bottom vent design is not ideal. -Wish the PSU was at least 750W. *Cons: -No additional PCI Express expansion ports. ==== Design & Build Quality ==== I love the design & build quality of the HP Omen. Although I'm usually a fan of the color white for my PC peripherals, the Omen won me over with its nice black paint job and its chiseled and angular design. The Omen logo on the front that lights up is really cool and adds just enough bling without going overboard. Same for the LED lighting inside the case. I love how I can customize both the color of the LED lighting as well as its animations via the Omen Command Center application. I unexpectedly had lots of fun playing around with the different lighting options. I also love the inclusion of all the modern & up-to-date ports that the Omen offers. On the top of the case are 2x USB 3.1 Type A ports (Gen1, 5 Gb/s), 1x headphone jack, & 1x microphone jack. On the rear of the Omen, there are 4x USB 3.1 Type A ports (Gen1), 1x USB 3.1 Type A (Gen2, 10 Gb/s), 1x USB Type C (Gen2, 10 Gb/s), 1x ethernet, 3x audio, and 5 additional ports from the RTX 2080 GPU (1x USB Type C, 1x HDMI, 3x Display Port). For me, these ports were enough to accommodate all of my PC accessories (e.g., speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor stand with USB & audio ports, external USB drives, flash drives). Coming from a Full Tower-size case, the Omen looked shockingly small to me at first. On the positive side, it is good because it is relatively so light and its compact dimensions doesn't take up too much space. On the negative side, airflow isn't as good and it is harder to improve it in such a small space. To complicate things even more, HP made some head-scratching design choices. For one, there is only one small 80mm fan on the rear of the case. The other active blowers are the CPU fan, the PSU fan, and the GPU fan. HP should've put in at least a 120mm fan in the rear and added a front intake fan. Second, HP curiously blocked off most of the top vented grille with a plate that impedes the warm airflow inside from escaping out through the top (see my picture). The plate is held in place by some Philips screws so at least it is removable. It would've been nicer if HP placed a fan up there instead of the plate. Third, on the bottom of the case, there is a vent protected by a removable filter. Because the vent is on the bottom of the case and many people will try to put the Omen down on top of the floor (e.g., carpet), cooling performance is again somewhat compromised and not ideal. A workaround would be to put something underneath the front and rear sides of the Omen to lift it up a bit and make clearance for the bottom vent. I did exactly that using two reams of printer paper as a temporary measure until I find a more suitable and aesthetically pleasing solution. Despite these shortcomings, I still love my Omen and it will be replacing my current Full Tower-size custom-built PC as my daily driver desktop. ==== Operating System & Software/Bloatware ==== The Omen came with Windows 10 1803 (2018 April Update) pre-installed with the usual amount of both Microsoft and third-party bloatware apps and games (e.g., McAfee Security, LinkedIn, Spotify, Candy Crush Saga, Fitbit Coach). They are all easily removable from Settings. There were many HP apps as well but most are useful utilities to help you with system maintenance, troubleshooting, and driver & firmware updates. The Omen Command Center is a nifty app I enjoyed using to customize the LED lighting. ==== Performance ==== Hooked up to the nVIDIA RTX 2080 is my 27" Asus MX27AQ monitor with WQHD resolution (2560 x 1440 IPS). Instead of using the crappy mouse and keyboard that came inside the box, I'm reusing my mechanical gaming keyboard and Logitech mouse from my previous gaming rig. Gaming on the HP Omen is PURE pleasure. At maximum eye-candy graphic settings, I'm thoroughly enjoying playing games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, Assassins Creed Odyssey, and Monster Hunter World. They all run fast, smooth, and perfectly. I ran the built-in benchmark in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (at Ultra settings) and I got the following scores: Average FPS: 74 CPU Game: 66 FPS min, 163 FPS max, 104 FPS avg, 73 FPS (95% percentile) CPU Render: 74 FPS min, 294 FPS max, 140 FPS avg, 99 FPS (95%) GPU: 61 min, 121 FPS max, 76 FPS avg, 63 FPS (95%) The 256GB Toshiba NVME SSD performed well as well. On the CrystalDiskMark benchmark, the Omen achieved 1523.4 MB/s Sequential Read and 718.1 MB/s Sequential Write. Random Read was 682.5 MB/s and Random Write was 275.8 MB/s. I didn't benchmark the 2TB 7200 RPM Seagate Baracuda hard drive but it performed well and quietly. Overall, I'm very, very happy with the performance and responsiveness of the Omen. I'm coming from a custom-built PC with a 2nd-generation Core i7 2600K, 16GB DDR3, Samsung SSD (SATA-3), and nVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080. The improvements are very tangible and perceptible. It's awesome. ==== Future Upgradeability ==== Unfortunately, the upgrade potential of the HP Omen is pretty limited due to no extra PCI-E slots and only one extra SATA-3 connector on the small micro-ATX motherboard. Still, I managed to make the best of it. Thankfully, the HP Omen comes with a single stick of 16GB DDR4 RAM with one RAM slot open. So I purchased a matching stick of 16GB Kingston HyperX Fury memory to make it 32GB. As for the hard drives, I added a 6TB Western Digital Black HDD on the SATA3 port and swapped out the 256GB Toshiba NVME SSD for a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo NVME SSD. In order to install the WD Black HDD, I had to purchase a slim, right-angle SATA3 cable. Otherwise, I wasn't able to close the sidepanel cover. In the future, I'll be upgrading the PSU to a higher wattage one when I perform a GPU upgrade. ==== Misc Notes ==== The included USB keyboard and mouse are very so-so and basic. Both are cheap- and flimsy-feeling. I can't type comfortably on the keyboard due to its shallow and unresponsive keys that are worse than most laptop keyboards. ==== Closing Thoughts ==== Despite some head-scratching design decisions made by HP in terms of airflow and expansion slots, the HP Omen is still a fantastic gaming system. It looks great, it has quality build materials with excellent fit-and-finish, it has many useful ports, and its powerful components make it a superb gaming system that allows for maximum visual fidelity and quality. I LOVE it~!!

Gaming PCs are in vogue now, and what used to be the domain of boutique builders is now become something offered by almost everyone. HP is no stranger to this market, as they acquired a boutique builder - Voodoo PC - back in 2006. Since that time they have replaced the branding with Omen, but maintained both some of the character, as well as the unique logo associated with that brand. The Omen Obelisk 875 is the latest in a line of these desktops, which brings the latest and greatest offerings from Nvidia and Intel to the table. Is it worth the asking price? Let’s dig in. The Omen Obelisk represents the entry level Omen desktop line. Compared to its larger Omen brethren, the Obelisk is more compact, less upgradable, and features a more limited set of configuration. Essentially what you get in this relatively small package, is a single chamber Micro-ATX computer layout, bottom mount power supply, dual 3.5” bays that are easy swap-in/out in arrangement. This configuration includes an Intel i7-8700 6-core CPU, 16GB DDR4, 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD, 2TB HDD, and the star of the show, the GeForce RTX 2080 8GB GDDR6. This is a potent configuration, featuring last year’s fastest non-k CPU, and this years fastest GPU under the $1k mark. This is a lot of hardware crammed into a relatively small case. I’m no stranger to small form factor builds, and this one has some issues - but are easily correctable with some investment. -- Design -- Inside the box is very little other than the tower. There is a bag of paperwork with an overview of your new computer. A power cord, and the obligatory keyboard and mouse are also found here. You won’t want to use the keyboard and mouse if you bought this $2k gaming rig. This computer comes with a tempered glass window on the side w/ RGB lighting. This once novel feature has turned somewhat mainstream for gaming computers. The lighting consists of both a main LED bar found at the top of the case, and the Omen logo, which acts as a separate zone. These are controllable via the Omen Command Center software and can not only be a static color, but have animations, even ones that indicate temperature. The software is fairly well executed, but the animations aren’t quite as smooth as you’d see on some. Interestingly, the GPU has an LED X found on the outside of the shroud that is the default Omen red - but lacks any control and is hardly visible with only about an inch of clearance between it and the power supply casing. Aesthetically the computer is sort of a mixed bag. The cable management is pretty good, with only a bit of ATX power cable being coiled at the bottom. The stock fan arrangement is just an 80mm exhaust fan, and the CPU fan - which is just a small step above the Intel stock cooler. The case is blacked out, including a black motherboard, black GPU, black power supply, black powder coating inside and out, and all black cabling. A single RAM slot, which is bright red, is populated with Kingston Hyper X ram shrouded in black with white lettering. This black theme breaks down on the m.2 SSD, which is a green PCB and really the only wart on this otherwise nicely executed monochromatic build. The case is easy to open, and while filled with some OEM style engineering tricks, is generally easy to work with. HP even provides video tutorials on everything from opening the side case (just push the convenient button) to replacing the motherboard. One thing that you won’t see in many other builds is the tempered glass is attached to the steel panel. Most manufacturers just use a drilled piece of tempered glass and affix with standoffs. The HP has a carefully engineered side panel with mounted glass. This means it is sealed much better than most other cases. The 3.5” drive mounts are tooless, and even support mounting 2.5” SSDs (BYO screws). There are filters, some removable, some not, everywhere, which should make maintenance easy enough. The CPU is Intel’s venerable i7 8700. This is the non-k CPU, with a 65w TDP - which is the most this board is designed for. The 6 core i7 has a base 3.2GHz frequency, but an all core boost speed of 4.3GHz which i’ve found can be held indefinitely using Intel’s XTU tooling. However, the CPU cooler is pretty bad. While it actually does keep the CPU cool and at least in a 21C ambient environment away from thermal throttling (just barely - peaking at 94C), it’s extremely loud. The fan ramps up, and between it and the exhaust fan heat pours out the back like a space heater. The GPU is an HP designed RTX 2080. This card is a blower style design with a shiny logo and LED lit red X that is hardly visible in this build. The card follows what appears to be the Nvidia reference board (although I did not disassemble it) and includes an aluminum backplate. The card weighs 1.25Kg (nearly 3lbs), so it definitely includes some cooling. As with most blower designs, the card is both loud and hot. The good news is that the noise isn’t annoying like the CPU, but rather a low rumble. The RTX 2080 design here generally is boosting to 1920Mhz until it hits its target temperature - at which point it does slowly drop back down to 1710, then its base frequency of 1515. The card seems to keep its 1710 boost in all but the worst synthetic loads, but this is definitely RTX 2080 reference clocks with no real headroom. Essentially this card performs worse than Nvidia’s RTX 2080 Founders Edition and worse than most 1080ti cards. That said it’s still a beast of a card, just limited by its own thermal design. -- Performance -- The Obelisk doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the task it was designed for. I ran the following benchmarks: Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark: 76 FPS 2560x1440 on Ultra settings Deus Ex Mankind Divided benchmark: Min 49.0, Max 75.1 Avg: 60.1 2560x1440 on Ultra settings 3DMark TimeSpy - 9525, Firestrike - 20975 Cinebench R15: (1242 stock/1388 with XTU tweaks) It’s important to remember this is out of the box stock with components that are somewhat thermally constrained and single channel RAM. Sure an RTX 2080 FE would perform better, dual channel ram might make up a few FPS, and an 8700k would keep things even faster, but there is no denying that this is a capable gaming rig. I did fire up some Battlefield V with ray tracing enabled. It looks nice, but honestly I have a hard time in such a fast paced game appreciating reflections. The included SSD is a decent performer. It is a Toshiba model (KBG30ZMV256G) and reads and writes sequentially around 1600 and 950MB/s respectively. It also does a good job in 4k reads and writes (500/450MB/s). -- Upgradability -- HP will advertise that it is a highly upgradable system, and while that isn’t untrue, it isn’t going to offer the easiest of upgrade paths. The biggest issue here is the stock Omen motherboard - the Edoras. Yes, it appears to be named for a Tolkien LOTR location with some potential references I won’t explore. It’s an H370 chipset, Intel’s top of the line non-overclocking chipset, which offers a good feature set. The board is designed with VRMs/power delivery for 65w TDP chips, so the fastest chip this board will ever see is already installed. Oddly, the motherboard only includes 2 RAM slots despite being a full-sized mATX board (as opposed to the conventional 4 slots) meaning that you’ll max out RAM at 32GB. The is only 1 m.2 slot (typical) and supports 2280 NVMe based drives which would be easy enough to replace. The 500w power supply is stout for its rating (40A on the 12v rail), but limiting overall, as between the CPU (65w)/GPU (215w) and other components, it’s pulling close enough to its rating. You could ostensibly replace the motherboard and power supply, but both will be difficult tasks in this chassis due to the compact nature and cable management system (perfectly laid out for this board, but not really much else). The LED control is farmed out to a separate daughter board that appears to use a USB header, so at least that seems easy enough. The GPU might pose some problem due to the mounting bracket (although based on cursory observations, it appears as though Nvidia reference style coolers should be fine here). I added a Corsair H60 120mm radiator to the CPU. This dramatically helped temperatures, both ambient in the case, and CPU package. This case does support adding a 120mm radiator (and only a 120mm radiator). There is a removable metal sheet at the top of the case. This sheet has 4 cutouts that can be removed using a screwdriver that will allow airflow. Once these are removed, you can mount either a 120mm fan or 120mm radiator. The radiator is just what this compact case needed to dissipate the heat of the 8700. The installation of such however, required removing the motherboard, which was no small task. I also had to detach the stock backplate, which had a significant amount of adhesive padding on the back. This is probably further than a normal consumer would want to go with their $2k computer, so while I like this option the best, it’s hard to recommend. Ram wise, I found while Best Buy doesn’t carry the matching stick of RAM, another online retailer we’ve all heard of does. I will comment back once I see what impact dual channel and 32GB make. -- Conclusion -- While some may argue (and rightfully so) that building your own rig will be faster, cheaper, and better - the answer is that it always depends. If you have no interest in building a computer, but rather just gaming - then this HP Omen is a serious consideration. You get top tier components, RGB lighting, tempered glass, and a reasonably small form factor. On sale, this can even be quite competitive or cheaper than building, especially with the GPU starting at $700 alone. My biggest complaint here is the CPU cooler, which is atrocious for the heat the CPU puts out.

This is my first go at at prebuilt gaming machine. I've building my own since 1998 and never thought I'd ever go back (I did buy a prebuilt gaming desktop a few months ago for work but it's used as a server). So lets see how well HP did with this Omen Obelisk. First impression was "Wow, this thing sure is purdy!". Tempered glass side door, glowy logo, all black with brushed metal finish. Niiiice. The wiring is pretty tidy but I'm not one to ding someone for not tucking in cables. It's pain and dealing with prettiness when it's time to do upgrades. The height is the same size as a standard mini tower, but the width is just a few inches short. This makes using most aftermarket hsf on your cpu a bit of a chore. If you check the other reviews you'll find some options for upgrade. After running my tests an upgraded hsf isn't really needed. I won't go too much into benchmarks and specs because all the info is either here or on the web. I'll just discuss specifics to the HP Omen Obelisk. The Obelisk comes with a reference version of nVidia's RTX 2080 - max boost clock 1710. This version is the single blower version which some may not like but it does a good job if you do a few tweaks. According to GPU-Z it's manufactured by HP and not a third party vendor. Combine that with the i7-8700 and you have a gaming beast that can chew up just about anything you throw at it. There's a single stick of 16GB Hyper-X DDR4 memory running at 2666Mhz, timings - 16/18/18/39/60 2t. Since there's only a single stick you won't have dual channel running, which really has very little impact in anything other than memory intensive apps like video and photo editing and bechmarks. Gaming has almost no benefits, there's a slight boost but nothing worth bragging over. 16GB will get you through most games just fine, but grab another 16GB if you feel you need it. You have one open bay to add another HDD or SSD. Both included drives (the m.2 and HDD) are manufactured by Toshiba. Speed were: M.2 Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1548.993 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 706.710 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 683.906 MB/s [ 166969.2 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 280.169 MB/s [ 68400.6 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 407.595 MB/s [ 99510.5 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 220.338 MB/s [ 53793.5 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 45.919 MB/s [ 11210.7 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 91.834 MB/s [ 22420.4 IOPS] HDD Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 182.608 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 200.877 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1.973 MB/s [ 481.7 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1.189 MB/s [ 290.3 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2.007 MB/s [ 490.0 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 0.738 MB/s [ 180.2 IOPS] Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.746 MB/s [ 182.1 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.727 MB/s [ 177.5 IOPS] The next choice of parts is pretty puzzling - a 500W PSU. nVidia recommends a minimum of 650W yet HP took a cost cutting measure and used a 500W. Yes, it works but without having that extra headroom you'll be pushing the PSU at near full blast while gaming. This could limit any extra peripherals you install and more importantly shorten the life of the PSU. In all my testing I had no issues, so take that as you will. While there are plenty of USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports (C and A) it would have been nice to include at least two USB 2.0 ports. Plugging a mouse and KB into a USB 3.0 port feels like a big waste. Plus if you have a VR set up you'll be running out of ports quickly. No extra PCI-E slots makes adding a better sound card or even an extra USB card out of the question. There's a printed spot on the PCB for the PCI-E slot, but they chose not to add it. My guess is because they didn't want to have to deal possible issues with power draw because of the less than min spec PSU. The audio is OK and it's powerful enough to drive 250ohm headphones. But there's are no tweaking options to EQ the sound. So it sounded kinda boxy. Another issue that needs to be addressed is that there are no intake fans and only 1 80mm exhaust fan. This makes for some pretty poor airflow and my tests showed it. There also a bracket at the top inside that's blocking air from exiting the top. I've no clue what it's for but it's definitely a mounting bracket for something. Also DO NOT put the tower on a carpeted floor. The GPU and PSU do better if you allow the cooler air to flow from the bottom. With the bottom covered my GPU hit 88c! Place it on a flat surface or you'll risk killing your GPU. On to the RTX 2080. Because of the lack of airflow, temps got pretty toasty using FurMark for stress testing. It got up to 88c. As the temps rose, the thermal throttling kicked in. Speeds went from 1710 down to 1500. This was with the case closed and the tower on carpet. I raised the tower next to allow flow from the bottom and max temps hit 86c but still had some throttling (around 1500-1650). One of the reasons for the poor temps is that the fan would never go over 50%, even at 88c. The fix, grab any other RTX mfg's tweak tool and set your own fan profile. I set the fan to run at 70% at 80c and re-ran my tests. No thermal throttling after 45 min of stress test with FurMark and temps never went over 80c. You should also be able to OC with the tools, but I don't OC much anymore. I ran Furmark and Prime95 together to see how the temps would fare and the GPU stayed under 80 and the CPU topped off at 86c but didn't remain for long, usually dipping to 83C. CPU was a little on the high side, but not enough to cause worry. Just running FurMark or 3dMark it stayed under 80C. Third party HSF should help a good bit here. I haven't had a chance to test a "live" game yet but did get 10002 on 3dMark graphic test (9289total) and 9748 on VRMark. Overall the system should run games on par with other reviews using the reference board - meaning you are gonna love it! All my testing was done out of the box with current windows updates. Now that this is done I'm going to do a clean install of windows 10 and start transferring all my games and personalizing everything to my liking. Overall I find this to be an impressive pre-built unit other than the things I mentioned above (airflow being the biggest con). If you got this during black friday then you make a killing! Everything that's good about a machine running an RTX 2080/ i7-8700 combo can be achieved with the HP Omen Obelisk as long as you tweak that fan profile.

The HP Omen Obelisk Desktop is geared towards PC gamers who want performance combined with clean aesthetics and upgradeability in a small chassis. While the general consumer might be happy with this product, there are some caveats that those with PC-building experience may want to be aware of. CHASSIS QUALITY: Like other recent Omen products that I’ve had the opportunity to experience, the build materials of the Chassis is decent. It’s a standard MicroATX case with one included rear-mounted case fan which is configured for exhaust. While there is no intake for better cooling, there is enough room for a top-mounted fan or single radiator AIO cooler if you wanted to add liquid cooling. There’s also a button on back that you can press to release the tempered glass side panel—which you simply lift upwards to remove. There are chambers for 2x 3.5” SATA drives, and room for a standard ATX PSU. On the front is an RGB-enabled Omen Logo which you can configure from the HP Omen Command Center software. Additionally, you have 2 Type-A USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo port, a separate microphone input port, and the power button. Overall, this case is functional, but certainly geared towards simplicity. SPECIFICATIONS: As mentioned before, HP’s chassis is geared towards a more minimalistic MicroATX build. This means that it only uses MicroATX motherboards which often provide less capability for I/O. This means fewer USB ports on the motherboard as well as having fewer PCI or PCIe slots for expansion for sound cards and crossfire. You’re really only given a single PCIe slot which comes pre-occupied by the RTX 2080 graphics card. On this Edoras H37 motherboard, you’ll find the following: - (1x) Intel LGA1151 socket for 8th Gen Intel Core CPUs (i7-8700 pre-installed) - (2x) DDR4 (288-pin) sockets (1x16GB HyperX 2666MHz CL16 pre-installed) - (1x) PCIe x16 socket (HP-manufactured RTX 2080 8GB pre-installed) - (1x) M.2 socket 1, key A (Intel AC-9560 Wi-Fi / Bluetooth module pre-installed) - (1x) M.2 socket 3, key M (256 GB KBG30ZMV256G TOSHIBA SSD pre-installed) - (2x) SATA3 ports (1x Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB HDD pre-installed) As far as rear I/O is concerned, you’ll be equipped with: - (4x) USB Type-A 3.1 Gen 1 - (1x) USB Type-A 3.1 Gen 2 - (1x) USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 2 - RJ-45 (Ethernet) - Audio: Line in (microphone) - Audio-out jack - Audio-in jack And lastly, you’ll have a LITE-ON 500W 80 Plus Bronze power supply that will gimp any additional performance you might hope to obtain by overclocking this system. Stay tuned for details on that. STOCK PERFORMANCE: Right out of the gate, I found that I was having a more enjoyable experience playing games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 3440x1440 on the highest preset due to the RTX 2080 8GB GPU and the hexacore i7-8700 CPU. I was reaching framerates unobtainable by my previous system’s GTX 1080 graphics card, which was to be expected. After doing some research on what many other reviewers were achieving without overclocking, I noticed that my scores were actually underwhelming in comparison. I even challenged a friend who owns a Core i7-5820k and GTX 1080 Ti to a 3DMark benchmark battle and lost by a decent chunk in the graphics scores. What? Why? All the benchmarks said that the RTX 2080 should be pretty comparable to the GTX 1080 Ti. I tried everything I could to debug the issue, but still ended up getting similar scores in my benchmark tests. And then it dawned on me. So it turns out that Nvidia wasn’t kidding when they recommended a 650W power supply for a system configured with the RTX 2080, and the fact that HP supplied this build with a 500W power supply is not acceptable. During my benchmark runs, I pulled up a GPU usage monitor and sometimes noticed only ~86% GPU utilization during the 3DMark graphics tests, which indicated that power limit throttling was occuring, since the temperatures were perfectly acceptable. Maybe the CPU cores were requesting more voltage to hit higher clock speeds? Out of curiosity, I pulled the RTX 2080 from the build and threw it into a comparable system with a 1000W 80 Plus Gold power supply. Without a stock GPU configuration and clean drivers, my graphics scores improved by a large amount, since the CPU and GPU were no longer battling for voltage. The main lesson here is that if you’re running GPU-intensive benchmarks or games, you may not be able to reach peak performance due to HP’s choice of using a low-wattage power supply. Lastly, it should be noted that HP shipped these desktops without the 10 October Fall Creators Update (AKA build 1809) which provides proper support for RTX’s ray-tracing capabilities in supported DX12 titles. While I didn’t test any Ray Tracing-enabled games, it’s important for others to be aware of this if they plan to play games that support the feature. I had to do quite a few updates to reach build 1809. OVERCLOCKING: I do not recommend trying to overclock this system with only a 500W power supply. It’s clear that HP didn’t design this system with that in mind. Thankfully, you can upgrade to a quality, higher wattage power supply for an affordable price. Ultimately, I recommend changing the power supply out for a 650W model, as Nvidia recommended. My testing shows much better framerate stability and performance improvements. That being said, at one point, I was able to get some pretty respectable results just using the 500W PSU, but I’ve been absolutely unable to get anywhere near these scores with the same CPU/GPU overclocks. You can see the comparison of the stock configuration versus the overclocked configuration here: https://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/5415905/spy/5439638 One could easily achieve better scores than this with a higher wattage power supply, dual-channel memory, improved cooling, and overclocking. However, since this is the non-K model of the i7-8700, you cannot achieve a CPU clock speed higher than 4.6GHz. Using ThrottleStop or Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility, you can increase the Turbo Boost Power to allow the CPU to reach 4.6GHz on all cores, but you would definitely want a better CPU heatsink & cooler to maintain ideal temperatures. As for the GPU, adding around +140MHz to the core clock and around +700MHz to the memory clock while also increasing max power to 110% yielded 8-10% performance improvements in framerate in 3DMark as well as Shadow of the Tomb raider. I was able to benchmark an average of ~66fps at Highest settings at 3440x1440. OTHER ISSUES: One thing I really dislike about this build is that HP has a kind of “brace” for the graphics card to ensure that it doesn’t wobble. While normally that might be fine, HP seemingly screwed it in with the power of Kratos because I found it incredibly difficult to remove—so much so, that the screw head stripped and I have given up on being nice to it. I will probably have to break the piece off, which is very frustrating. Thankfully, I was still able to remove the graphics card with the brace still fixed to the case. But if I ever decided to put a different graphics card in, I’ll definitely need to remove the brace. Something that’s not necessarily an issue but should be noted is that this H370 motherboard does not support XMP profiles for memory, which means the best you’ll get is 2666MHz out of a single stick of RAM. Intel’s Z370 motherboards support XMP profiles, so you could later opt to upgrade the motherboard if you deem it necessary. This probably isn’t a dealbreaker for many, but I had 2x16 3200MHz DIMMs lying around and tried running them dual channel, but the speed was capped at a mere 2666MHz. CONCLUSION: Overall, someone who wants a prebuilt machine and doesn’t care about getting the best performance for the price might really like this machine. But the reality is that someone spending this kind of money probably isn’t okay with getting subpar performance. RTX graphics card prices are already inflated, and that becomes pretty obvious in the non-sale price of this Obelisk PC. If this PC goes on sale (which it did for Black Friday), I think the price is much more manageable to swallow. But for enthusiasts hoping to save a bit of money with a pre-built machine, I’d advise that you wait until mid-January or so before biting the bullet. With more and more quality components coming at affordable prices, HP isn’t providing a compelling option for those who are educated buyers—instead opting to pinch pennies in areas that negatively impact their reputation.

HP Omen Obelisk (875-0024) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #####Setup/Testing/Conclusion##### --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The HP Omen Obelisk. Where do I even start… Let’s just say, HP has definitely struck a home run with the HP Omen Obelisk. Not only is this gaming PC a beast for all you hardcore enthusiast gamers, the best part is that it is fully upgradable. I really like the micro-ATX chassis that HP went with for the Omen Obelisk. The nice large side window will fulfill all you hardcore enthusiast gamers by showing off your internals to all your jealous friends/family (RTX 2080 WINK WINK). If that doesn’t impress your friends/family, maybe the included RBG lighting will. Now when I mentioned fully upgradable, I literally mean fully upgradable. HP thought of the gaming enthusiast by providing tool-free removal when it comes to wanting to make your own installations/adjustments. So if the included specs aren’t beefy enough for you, you’re more than welcome to add or make adjustments. Now onto the specs. For this specific model, you’re going to be geared with an i7 8700 (non K) processor, 16GB of Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2666MHz memory, 256GB SSD, and of course; a Nvidia RTX 2080 (8GB). For those of you that have a lot of pictures or music that you want to store, this specific model also includes a 2TB 7200 rpm hard drive. But realistically, how does everything perform when it comes to gaming? Everything I ran and threw at this beast was like butter to a hot knife; effortless while providing the best results. A couple things I would’ve liked to see differently. For memory, I would’ve liked to see 8GB sticks (x2) instead of just 1 16GB stick to be able to utilize dual channel. It also helps with the fact if 1 stick goes bad, you have the option to run the PC still with just 1 stick till you obtain another. But, I can see why HP perhaps did that. It’s so that you can get another 16GB stick to run the maximum 32GB. Being that the i7 8700 runs quite warm, I would’ve liked to see the CPU being watercooled instead of utilizing the stock fan. Along with that, I would’ve liked to see a bigger SSD than 256GB since most games nowadays take up a lot of space. Overall, I can say that this prebuilt gaming rig will satisfy most enthusiast gamers out there. The reason why, if you want to make upgrades; HP definitely welcomes you to do that with the HP Omen Obelisk. The chassis that HP went with made it so that it makes it extremely simple to make changes/buy upgrades thanks to the tooless design. Although it’s a micro-ATX chassis, you can still fit in things like a watercooler and a full sized video card like the already included RTX 2080. Not to mention, HP gives you some pretty good parts already to begin with so you won’t have trouble playing all those AAA titles. I must say, GREAT JOB HP! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #####Specs##### --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows 10 Intel Core i7 8700 (non K) 16GB of Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2666MHz memory (1x16) Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 8GB 256GB SSD 2TB 7200 rpm HDD 7 USB 3.1 ports Bluetooth and WLAN Ready DTS Headphone: X technology Microphone-in/headphone-out combo jack. Microphone input. Optical audio output --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #####What's in the box##### --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HP Omen Desktop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 - 2TB Hard Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive HP black wired keyboard with volume control and wired optical mouse Power Cord Various Manuals

Bought this PC with Best Buy Early Access (18 Nov), received 22 Nov. Kept myself updated with all the reviews people have been posting so far. Observed people posting both positive and negative comments. Was confused for a while if I should return it back, due to the fact that many people claimed having faulty RTX 2080 on their rigs & 3 beep issues. Performed stress test on my one just to be sure of what I got (GPU). Runs smooth. So, here's my two cents for people who are still concerned about the PSU and CPU cooling, and my version of experience on the problems that this awesome Gaming Rig (in terms of Price!) might make you encounter. I replaced both the stock 500W PSU and Intel stock CPU fan yesterday with "CORSAIR - CX Series Modular CX750M 750W ATX Power Supply" and "Corsair H60 AIO liquid cooler" respectively. At first, i bought the EVGA 1000W that best buy is giving at an amazing price (100$ only) right now, without doing any reseacrh on this HP mATX case. I did not take measurements of the stock PSU before buying the EVGA. You can avoid the troubles (of unpacking, trying to install, making a mess and then returning the PSU back to BB) that I faced. Dont buy any PSU larger than 6.5 inches in length. After research and trying to balance PSU length vs Wattage, found that the Corsair 750W meets the requirement of this mATX form factor (length: 6.3 inches). But thats not all. The way the 4 screw holes are drilled on this PSU, you have to install it by making the PSU fan face the case floor, not the GPU. So there will be literally 5-7 mm space for the PSU fan to breath air. Thats the drawback. The EVGA 1000W has advanced design. Regret that I had to return it :/ Installing the H60 AIO cooler was easy. You just have to struggle a little to put back those 2 screws that go into the chasis since there will not be enogh room with a fan and radiator mounted on top of the rectangular platforming holding all together. Before installing the air cooler, my GPU/CPU temp while playing NFS Payback at Ultra settings: 71C/81C. (Note: The OMEN Command Center seems faulty/weird!? Dont know why just turning this program on increases the GPU/CPU temp! Anyone facing similar problem?) After installing the air cooler, my GPU/CPU temp while playing NFS Payback at Ultra settings: 71C/55C (after 1 hour of gaming). The AIO cooler is doing its thing!! :) Now the issues that I faced: 1. To install the AIO cooler, had to remove everything. Once put back, the famous 3:3 beeps came back :) Tried all the solutions found on the internet. Did not work. Found my HDMI cable was faulty :P 2. After the upgrade, the NFS crashed while palying at ultra! Did not happen with the stock PSU and fan!? Attached the screenshot of DXDIAG. Any ideas? Did update the GPU driver (current version: 41722) 3. A high pitch noise is coming from the PC after the upgrade while gaming at ultra. Trying to figure out whether it is the PSU/GPU/AIO cooler fan or the pump? Seems like coming from the bottom. Could be the PSU fan!? Any recommendation guys? Did not happen with the stock PSU+CPU fan. 4. After updating BIOS from v F.05 to F.11, wifi and bluetooth vanished + not workig at all! Solved by unstalling all the network drivers from Device Manager and performing a hard reset + reinstalling all the drivers form HP Support website. Thanks everybody for your reviews. I would say have some patience. At least, I will watch it a few more days before deciding to return it. Happy gaming :)

Bought this at $1,500, a very good deal but not great. I will cover why its not great after we go over the 3:3 beeps; the disclaimer is that what worked for me may not work for you. BOTTOM LINE IS: I GOT THE 3:3 BEEPS and I am typing this review on the same computer :) So I read a few reviews here with the 3:3 beeps GPU error, but it looked like others had found solution(s). This GPU came out earlier 2018 and many drivers are still being push out to rid the bugs. Nvidia is the pioneer to gaming graphics, the company isn’t a new kid on the block…I started using Nvidia GPUs since GeForce 2 lol. For the price, I decided to give it a shot because I have total faith in Nvidia. I also bought a Dell 27" QHD GSync Monitor S2716DGR. **FROM THIS POINT ON IF I PUT (!) next to something, that means it had to do with the 3:3 Beeps**** Once I received the PC and monitor, I setup the monitor with the included 1.2 DisplayPort (!), and turned on the monitor first ( just like others who have suggested). Did not get the beeps and everything worked fine. Once I completed the tedious HP Setup, I immediately updated my BIOS and GPU driver: BIOS Update: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00007682 GPU Update: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ Restarted computer, everything was still working perfectly. Finally, I did a benchmark on the PC and noticed the RAM is only subpar based on the tests, so I bought another Hyperx Fury 16GB DDR 4 RAM. Two days later, I received the RAM in the mail. I inserted the RAM into the motherboard and powered it back up. It was at this point, I realized I did not turn on my monitor(!) and received my fair share of 3 long beeps and 3 rapid beeps (!). I initiated all of the solutions that were listed here and other HP Forums but nothing worked: -Reseated both of RAM sticks -Unplugged everything from the computer, to include power -Let the beeps run its cycles until it stops, and then powered down -Multiple power down and power up -Disabled Secured Boot and Enable Legacy Boot (a solution I found on forum that worked for some). This got rid of the beeps but did no fix the blank screen. For a second, I started to get worried like most of you…I though I got a lemon. But I decided to persevere and look at other options. This is where most of you made the mistake and decided you have a bad machine based on the reviews and “HP totally screwed this one up”; a bias you have created for yourself. I steered away from the PC and started looking into my monitor. I plugged in a HDMI port to see if I can trick the GPU in finding the monitor (!)…WAAAA LAA! Computer booted up and everything worked. So I plugged the DisplayPort back in and restarted my computer….the terrifying 3:3 beeps again!! Switched back to HDMI, and worked again(!) Tried leaving both wires in and unplugging HDMI (leaving DisplayPort in) after the computer booted up. Only blank screen. I was not about to settle with only HDMI working because it caps the monitor at only 60hz. Finally, after messing with the monitor, I noticed there was an input switch setting on my monitor (!) , guess what…it was switched to HDMI. I immediately unplugged the power from my monitor, turned it back on, and switched the input to DisplayPort (!) . It was at this point, I gave it another try. I plugged ONLY the DisplayPort in and computer booted up..and everything woked. This is not the root of the problem, please read my summary below SUMMARY: Computer was working with DisplayPort. At one instance, I forgot to turn on the monitor prior to powering the computer. GPU subsequently stopped detecting my monitor, causing the 3:3 beeps. I plugged in a HDMI cable to trick the monitor into booting, and it did; However, this changed my monitor setting to display HDMI. Finally, I unplugged the monitor from power for a hard reset (not sure if that matters). I powered the monitor back on and switch the input to DisplayPort. Turned the computer on and everything worked. I agree, we purchased a brand new computer with the latest technologies, we expect it to function. However, understand new technologies = bugs. If you don’t mind this buggy problem, please return. I am no computer expert but I think this is just a bug Nvidia/HP needs to fix. Documenting reviews on what you tried (work or not) will help them do their audits when developing the new BIOS update/GPU Driver. Anyways, I will keep the rest of my review short and sweet. The extra 16GB of RAM made some good difference but the computer was pretty fast to begin with. Also the CPU Fan is crap, spend 50 bucks and get you a better cooler (you don’t need liquid cool, because you’re not overclocking this CPU)…just know that you will probably want a low profile cooler due to limited space in this Omen case. The powersupply is fine, I know Nvidia recommends 600W but there were tests done by users and the GPU utilized ~300W at full cap and ultra settings (for what its worth). For $1500, can’t beat it. But I would not pay $1,999 unless it included faster RAM @ 32GB, 700W GPU, better cooling, and a bigger case for future upgrade.

I do not typically take the time to write a review, however I decided I should write one up in this case as a warning. I am not a computer expert, which is why I opted to buy a prebuilt in the first place. I bought this model on black Friday and "saved" 500 dollars. My more tech savy friend had said that this model at $1500 dollars was a pretty good deal, as the graphics card alone ranged from 700-800 bucks. The only thing that made me hesitant were some reviews on best buy's website that warned of the computer having a beep code error when trying to boot up. I decided to take my chances and purchase it, thinking I wouldn't be one of the unlucky ones. After waiting for several days for it to be delivered to the store, I was excited to pick it up and get it setup in my media room. I made all the needed connections and the computer booted up like a champ. I went through the initial setup of windows, cortana, and downloaded several of my games. By the time everything had downloaded and updated I had to shut the computer down, due to the need for sleep. When going to turn the computer on the following day I got the beep code the bad reviews had warned about (3 short beeps followed by 3 long beeps). It continued to beep and not boot up. I brought it back to the store and informed the return desk, followed by a store supervisor of my problem. They exchanged it out for an identical model. I brought it home thinking bad luck wouldn't strike twice. I was wrong. Same exact issue. Back to the store I went, let down and disappointed. I talked to the return desk and supervisor once more. I let them know I really wanted a working computer which is why I spent 1500 dollars +tax in the first place. However I was done going back and forth and wanted to return it. One of the employees said that they had just got a new shipment and said if I tried to exchange it once more I would likely not end up with part of the same bad batch. Foolishly I exchanged it once more. Brought it home, and just like you would expect same issue. Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on me. I brought it back and returned it for good. I never want to see an HP omen again. The icing on the cake however is due to me exchanging the computer twice... upon returning it... Best buy gave me a notice stating I am no longer allowed to return anything in their store for a year. What a joke! I spent 1650 dollars on one of their high end gaming computers. They sent me home multiple times with a computer that did not work... and to top it off hit me with a return ban. The return ban is basically them banning me from their store and penalizing me for buying faulty products. Why would anybody buy expensive electronics or any product for that matter if 1) the store is known to sometimes sell defective products. and 2) the store will no longer allow you to utilize the standard return policy. When I asked the employees why I could no longer return things, he responded by saying it was due to my return history. The only thing I returned in the last couple years was the exchanging of the defective PC. Buyer beware. Extremely dissatisfied with both the HP omen and Best Buy.