HP Omen Obelisk gaming desktop is engineered beyond its $849 starting price
A redesign of the Omen 870 desktop, this micro-ATX tower aims for easy expansion and gaming immersion.
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HP can definitely put together a good gaming desktop at a good price, but there's always room for improvement. The Omen Obelisk, announced at Europe's biggest games conference, Gamescom, basically addresses the issues customers had with the Omen 870 tower , making it easier to use and expand.
For example, HP flipped the front USB port access on top of the case so they're pointed at you and not away. The Omen logo on front has programmable lighting, and with an optional tempered glass side panel with a clear EMI protective coating you get two zones of additional RGB lighting inside with five different lighting modes.
Omen by HP Obelisk
| Processor | Intel Core i3-8100 | AMD Ryzen 5 2500X | Intel Core i5-8400 | Intel Core i7-8700 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 |
| Memory | 8GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 | 8GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 | 8GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 | 16GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 |
| Storage | 1TB 7,200rpm SATA HDD | 1TB 7,200rpm SATA HDD | 1TB 7,200rpm SATA HDD | 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD + 1TB 7,200rpm SATA HDD |
| Side panel | Metal | Metal | Metal | Tempered glass |
| Power supply | 300W | 500W | 500W | 500W |
| Starting price | $849 | $999 | $1,049 | $1,549 |
It's a micro-ATX tower, but it has room for a full-length graphics card -- one of the first systems to carry the Nvidia GeForce RTX 20 series of GPUs -- two 3.5-inch drive bays and two m.2 slots for storage and WLAN. Plus, the 3.5-inch bays are compatible with 2.5-inch drives and there's support for PCIe NVMe solid-state drives and Intel Optane memory. It'll support up to 32GB of memory and all configurations come with HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 with CL 19-19-19 timing at 1.2 volts.
A standard ATX power supply fits inside and now sits at the bottom of the case leaving vents at the top open to let out heat. HP added mounting for 120mm fans or a 120mm liquid-cooled radiator, too.
It'll support Omen Game Stream, too, which lets you use the Obelisk's power to play games on another PC regardless of its performance capabilities and Android devices later this year.
Correction, Aug. 21 at 12:45 p.m.: The starting price for the Omen Obelisk is $849.