HP OMEN 35L AI Gaming Desktop PC w/DKZ Review

A powerful gaming workhorse with an excellent RTX 5070, hamstrung by HP's proprietary parts and wildly fluctuating prices. Buy it on sale, or don't buy it at all.

The HP OMEN 35L is a solid, no-nonsense gaming tower that gets the job done, but it's not the flashiest star on the block. The one thing you need to know is this: you're buying a reliable, well-built machine with a powerful RTX 5070 GPU that will crush 1440p gaming, but you're also buying into HP's sometimes frustrating ecosystem of proprietary parts. It's a workhorse, not a show pony.

The performance is exactly what you'd expect from an RTX 5070 and a Ryzen 7 8700F: it's fast. In our database, the GPU lands in the 82nd percentile, which means it's comfortably ahead of the pack for gaming. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM is also a sweet spot, sitting in the 89th percentile. What surprised us a bit was the CPU ranking in the 62nd percentile. It's plenty capable for gaming, but it's not the top-tier chip you might find in some competing builds. For pure frame pushing, the GPU carries the team.

Worth it? It depends entirely on the price you find. With a spread from $1080 to over $2350 across different sellers, you need to shop carefully. At the lower end of that range, it's an absolute steal. At the high end, you're overpaying for the Omen branding. Our advice: hunt for a deal on the configuration with the 5070 and 32GB RAM, and don't pay a premium for unnecessary storage upgrades from third-party vendors.

Compared to the Alienware Aurora R16, the Omen 35L often offers better raw specs for the money, but Alienware's design and compact form factor are more polished. Against a Lenovo Legion Tower, you're looking at similar performance, but Lenovo's motherboards can be slightly more upgrade-friendly. The real competitor is HP's own Omen 45L. The 45L has better cooling and a more unique design, but you pay for it. For most gamers, the 35L's performance-per-dollar is the smarter buy if you find the right config.

If you're a tinkerer who loves to swap parts every year, skip this. The proprietary bits will drive you nuts. Go build your own PC or buy a brand like CyberPowerPC that uses standard components. Also, if you need a small PC, look elsewhere—this thing is a tank.

We recommend the HP OMEN 35L, but with a big caveat: buy it on sale. At its best price, it's a powerful and reliable gaming PC that will handle anything you throw at it for years. At its worst price, you're leaving performance on the table for the sake of a logo. Do your homework, compare the exact specs against the price, and pull the trigger only when the numbers make sense. It's a great PC that's occasionally a great deal.