HP announces an updated set of Omen Max 45L RTX 5090 rigs with Ryzen CPUs, but no word on price yet leaves me worried

One thing I've noticed recently is that, with the price of RTX 5090 cards being so ludicrously high, even infamously overpriced gaming brands like Alienware have relatively reasonable prebuilts. This leaves a gap for other manufacturers to take the lead, and HP is just one of many to throw its hat in the ring.

Announced today, HP is launching the Omen Max 45L, an upgrade of sorts to its 45 L range of PCs. Besides having 'Max' written up the top left-hand side, it's not a hugely dissimilar-looking rig. The GPU slot in the board has a bracer around it, and the power going to the CPU comes in from underneath rather than on top, but it's otherwise a fairly familiar rig.

The Max 45L not only goes up to a Ryzen 9 9950X3D and up to an RTX 5090, but it also comes with HP's Cryo Chamber cooling system. This same system is present in the 45L, but HP now claims it can deliver "up to a 7.5 degree drop in CPU temps" thanks to it. Previously, that claim was just 6 degrees Celsius.

These tests were done with a 2024 Omen 35L with Ryzen 9 9950X3D and an Omen Max 45L with the same specs. It is worth noting that the Max 45L is a larger case, so all things aren't totally equal here, even though they have the same basic build. Given the similarity to the standard 45L's thermal claims, it seems likely that the Max 45L won't have much more efficient thermals than the standard 45L. We'll have to get our hands on one to confirm this.

You can see the full potential specs for a Max 45L below:

As well as this, today saw the announcement of new refreshes to the Omen line. The HP Omen 35L range of desktops now goes all the way up to a Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU and RTX 5090 GPU, though it doesn't have Cryo Chamber cooling.

A new 'Stealth' line of 35L machines has been announced, which does away with the RGB lighting and puts all those components into a slick black case. The spec sheet for the Stealth line doesn't appear to have a 128 GB memory option, like the Max 45L and 35L, but everything else is the same.

It seems like the 35 L and Max 45 L will offer similar gaming performance, with the latter being cooler. Both machines offer the same IO, with the Max 45L being 8 kg heavier.

They also both have a selection of fully modular power supplies, though the Max 45L come with a 360 mm liquid cooler (rather than the 240 mm in the 35L) and the Max 45L comes with three 120 mm front fans, whereas the 35L comes with two 140 mm fans. The 35L also goes down to a slightly lower Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and the Max 45L doesn't. You can also get an RTX 5060 or 5060 Ti 35L rig.

Though you can get a 45L right now with an RTX 5090, you can't seem to buy a version with a Ryzen CPU. This means the Max range seems to be not only adding a bigger case plus a shroud around the GPU and slightly different cable management, but it appears to be adding the Ryzen option.

Finally, the HP Omen 16 lineup of laptops will be getting a refresh, now coming with an RTX 5070 Ti. Where the PCs only come with Ryzen CPUs, these laptops only come with Intel ones.

Unfortunately, we don't have any word yet on pricing or release date, though we can expect from both its claims and the lower available specs of the 35L that the Max 45L will cost a premium. It just needs to cost less than $5300 at the higher end to instantly beat out the Alienware Area-51 for me, though coming with a Ryzen chip will certainly help.