The HP Omen Obelisk is a powerful option to take into consideration if investing lavishly in a gaming Computer is your next financial move. Its extremely contemporary chassis boasts cutting-edge specifications that devoted gamers need in their gaming system along with a dash of nostalgia.
Design
The chassis HP put together is impressive, and I really like how simple the design is. That is the same as the model from the previous year, and I’m mainly fine with that. It is a relatively small chassis that accommodates a tiny ATX motherboard and other industry-standard components.
A black metal monolith with an RGB HP Omen logo forms the design’s front point. All of the airflow is arranged in a stylish triangular crisscross design on the sides and top. Although the less expensive choices feature metal side panels, our item has a glass side panel. Through the glass, you can see the chassis’s programmable RGB lighting system, which is managed by a daughterboard. And a button on the back of the desktop may be quickly pressed to remove the glass panel.
I wish HP would leave the glass alone so it didn’t obstruct the view of the components and the black Omen logo that is printed on it. (On the other aluminum side panel, the logo can be seen a third time.)
Nevertheless, I have a major concern with this design: ventilation. The system’s rear 120mm fan is the sole real case fan. The majority of the air enters through the case’s bottom, where HP installed a detachable dust filter. Moreover, there are two vents: one on the front to let some air in to cool front-mounted HDDs and one on the top, which is mostly obstructed by the watercooler’s 120mm fan.
There isn’t much room for air to enter because there is less than five millimeters between the bottom of the casing and the bottom vents. But, if you purchase an Obelisk case as of this writing, you will have the same amount of room as I did. HP informed me that it hoped to make a tweak to Obelisk cases as soon as September to make it roughly 15mm.
Even though the GPU has a blower-style cooler, it won’t be as well chilled as some other graphics cards, but at least the waste heat won’t be inside the case with just a single 120mm case fan.
The Obelisk is 17.1 x 14.1 x 6.5 inches (434.3 x 358.1 x 165.1 mm) and is small enough to sit atop most desks. Whereas the Corsair One i160 (7.9 x 7 x 15 inches) is far less upgradeable, it is not as small. The Alienware Aurora R8 is larger than the MSI Trident X (15.6 x 15.1 x 5.1 inches), which is also similar in size (18.6 x 14.2 x 8.4 inches).
Upgradeability and ports
The ports, along with the power button, microphone jack, and headphone jack, are located in a little indentation on the top. Even if the depression is too small to accommodate a hard drive or other bulkier devices, I see this as a simple solution to prevent USB sticks from being knocked out. It assists in maintaining the tidy appearance when it is empty.
The motherboard contains an ethernet jack, four USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a S/PDIF port, USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports in Type-A and Type-C, and audio in/out connections. On the GPU, there are VirtualLink and HDMI for video as well as DisplayPort.
According to HP’s website, the Obelisk is “Sleek. Powerful. also simple to upgrade. Among those three, the last isn’t always true.
The Obelisk upgrade should be simple in theory. From the motherboard to the CPU cooler to the power supply, it uses only industry-standard components. Even from major brand-name vendors, PCs should all be designed in this manner. Hence, in theory, you could use this chassis for many years and change any element just like you would if you constructed your own.
But, managing the cables when updating can be a challenge, particularly if you’re replacing components. You must unscrew the screw holding the case’s rear panel in place from inside the case in order to remove it. You might have to move the extra zip-tied cables connecting to the power supply in order to find that screw.
And in this instance, the screw on our review device was installed so firmly that, as we attempted to remove it, it began to strip. To make the machine more user-friendly, HP should definitely consider adding a few more screws to the back of it (perhaps even thumb screws for tool-free access). Even if your screw comes out, getting to it will be difficult at best.
This hasn’t changed from the model from last year, and the screw last year worked just fine. But, it has turned out to be detrimental to the machine this year, which I was unable to properly improve even if I wanted to. I wouldn’t be able to make some more significant adjustments if I had a less advanced model and couldn’t reach the system’s back.
Pricing and accessibility
The HP Omen Obelisk review model is a gaming Computer with some thundering specs. It has an 8th generation Intel Core i7, 32 GB of RAM, 512 GB of SSD storage, and 1 TB of hard drive storage, as well as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, a GPU that is considerably superior to the 1080 and has advantages over the 1080 Ti that featured in the Omen Desktop that we recently reviewed. Unsurprisingly, this option costs $2284, which includes the glass side window so you can show off those incredible features whenever you have the chance. While HP did reduce the price by $200 at the time of the review and will probably do so again.
With a few exceptions, a comparable configuration is available in the UK. It has 256GB of SSD storage and 2TB of HDD, but only has 16GB of RAM, which is half the amount in the US. The most costly setup in the UK costs £1,899, which is roughly $100 more than the same American configuration.
Buyers in Australia will regrettably be unable to locate a comparable configuration. The closest thing is an HP Omen Obelisk, which costs AU$2,999 and has much less powerful specifications, including AMD Ryzen 7 2700, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD+2TB of HDD storage. It is the most costly choice and one of only two configurations offered in Australia. The other configuration costs AU$2,799 and includes an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU, 128GB SSD, and 1TB HDD storage, as well as the same GPU and RAM.
For a whooping $3,723, you can fully spec out the HP Omen Obelisk in the US with an Intel Core i9, 64GB of RAM, 512GB SSD + 3TB HDD + 3TB HDD, and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
In the US, the entry-level configuration costs $700 and includes an AMD Ryzen 5 2500X CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, 8GB of Memory, and a 1TB HDD. It won’t change the game by any means. If you want to save money while still getting a good gaming experience, upgrading this to include an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and 16GB RAM will only set you back $190 more and provide you with AAA gaming that runs smoothly on medium to high settings.
