There has always been a belief with true PC Gamers that to have a killer Rig, you must build it yourself.

And for the most part that is very true. You select the best of the best components, slot it all together in supreme Casing with specialized cooling and enough lights that it can be seen from space. It’s your Rig, you built it, you know all of the parts inside. It’s built to your specifications.

As a PC Gamer myself I absolutely relate.

But… what if it was all done for you? The elitist of PC gaming technology, doubled inside of a sleek one of a kind Case to give you that necessary processing power to game like a Pro.

HP have just the thing. The Omen X.

Shane the Gamer (StG) was provided with the HP Omen X 900-071a which is the top model for Australia and New Zealand (see our Unboxing HERE).

The cubed Rig already looks like a force to be reckoned with before getting through to the setup. And it’s big, measuring in at 16.54 x 6.5 x 15.79 inches and fully ready to be further customized by yourself. Most notably at first glance is the easily accessible x4 drive bays at the angled front of the Casing. The Omen X can be fully kitted out with additional SSD’s or standard HDD’s to further bolster digital storage capacity.

This model of the Omen X comes with pre-installed 32GB DDR4 RAM.

Your gaming prowess is powered by a Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Processor (Overclockable) and for the digital eye candy, not one – but two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, all powered by a 1400 Watt PSU and intercooled with Water Cooling.

A 256GB SSD for the Windows 10 OS and a supplied 2TB HDD for anything else. Naturally these can be swapped out.

The Casing is something that of a Scifi flick. Perfectly cubed the Omen X is not designed to sit flat on one’s desk – but to sit on a tilt via it’s stand. Lighting is not over done. The four illuminated squares on the face of the Rig can be totally customized so that each and every square is a different shade of awesome. You can create Profiles in the HP Omen X software pre-installed on the PC to match your Gaming. When you are all done lighting your Case to match your mood – you can also have the lights dance to the explosive DTS Sound.

The Case does have a large footprint, so you will need a sizable desk or a wee bit of floor space near your desk. However being that it sits on an angle you do have a bit of desk space either side.

To say that the Omen X Desktop is a beast is an understatement.

We put it through it’s paces as best as possible. Games such as Gears of War 4 or Dishonored 2 did not even break a sweat. The Omen X continued to subtly purr as we got our game on.

Placing aside gameplay for the moment, while reviewing the Omen X is was also apparent that the Rig had more to it than a high end gaming PC. I can see commercial use here aswell, especially for graphic and video rendering.

It is fair to say that there has not been a preconfigured, pre-built gaming PC such as this on the market. The Omen X is the one stop where you get all you need and alot of future proofing including the ability to seamlessly handle VR (HTC Vive ready).

Releasing in December 2016 to most it will be a little pricey, you wont see much change left from around $7K for this model. But there are cheaper ones which range from approximately $2K ready to go from the box, or as mentioned earlier, if you want to build your own Rig but have the styling and light show of the Omen X, a bare-bones case is also available for just under $1K. Check out the Omen X range HERE.

The Omen X is an absolutely serious kit and with further customization options with the high end model, it’s also the future of PC Gaming.

The post HP Omen X Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

During mid October 2016 Shane the Gamer (StG) was exclusively invited to witness the dawn of PC gaming unlike we had ever seen.

Unveiled and hands on was the Omen X PC gaming Rig made by HP. Select media were some of the first in the world to witness a super gaming PC experience in association with Microsoft.

Forza Horizons 3 and Gears of War 4 graced the monitors while the super charged Omen X handled the gameplay without breaking a sweat.

With one month before the Omen X releasing to stores we have been supplied an Omen X by the very awesome folk at HP New Zealand and Australia. Like every gamer and tech fan we got right in to see what comes with the Omen X and how it all performs as soon as we got it.

Everything is better in black and the Omen X box does not give too much away about the high end Rig it holds. Super heavy though, weighing in at 28kgs.

Once opened, the Omen X unit remains elusive throughout its tightly organised packaging. First bits that you will encounter is a Manual, power cable and spare mounting screws for any additional drive bays that you may decide to add in future.

It doesn’t take too long until you’re down to the good stuff. The Omen X Rig, although square, is packaged on the angle that it is designed to sit as on one’s desktop. Like a diamond in a box. To ensure that your Omen X is not scuffed in anyway, it is shielded by a cover (and this cover can be reused once the Omen X is unpacked, set up but not being used to keep dust at bay).

Removing the dust cover naturally reveals the awesomeness that is the Omen X… pause and take it in for a few minutes.

The cubed Rig already looks like a force to be reckoned with before getting through to the setup. And it’s big, measuring in at 16.54 x 6.5 x 15.79 inches and fully ready to be further customised by yourself. The first feature you will notice the accessibility to the additional x4 drive bays. The Omen X can be fully kitted out with additional SSD’s or standard HDD’s to further bolster digital storage capacity. The model that we received from HP is the 900-071a which is New Zealand and Australia exclusive.

It is also the top shelf unit of the Omen X’s with pre-installed 32GB DDR4, Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Processor with a dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. 256GB SSD for the Windows 10 OS and a supplied 2TB HDD for anything else.

To say that the Omen X Desktop is a beast is an understatement.

There’s enough ports to see you right for whatever peripherals you could ever need for a very long time. x8 HDMI’s, x6 USB 3.0 ports – plus x2 at the front, x2 DVI, mixed Mic and Headphone port, Optical Out and split audio ports at the front of the case. Oh and there’s still space at the rear of the unit to add more.

Once powered on you instantly see the case light up. Once you get through the Windows 10 setup (which we assume you are already familiar with you’ll find the HP Omen software.

This allows you to totally customise the light grids to your taste. The entire quadrant can phase between four colours, or you can choose which individual square in the quadrant has which colour. Even further, each line of a square can be tailored and if you like, you can have the light show pulse to audio / music. This in itself is every reason to experience the Omen X.

This model of the Omen X will retail for around 6-7K NZD, but there are much cheaper options. You can also opt to get the barebones and customise yourself. Shortly we will have a full review live based on gaming performance.

The Omen X is very much the Maserati of gaming Rigs and if you have the cash this coming December and looking for an all in one pre-built, this is definitely it.

The post HP Omen X Unboxing appeared first on Shane the Gamer.