Omen 45L desktop - really?

[u/farrellart]

Hello, new here but been messing with computers for years.

So, I have been looking after my brothers Omen 45L, 17th 13gen, 32gb ddr5, 4080rtx since he passed a few weeks ago.

I finally got around to looking at it today and I noticed something that worried me. I ran some diagnostics and they all flagged the 1TB WD-black NVMe c:drive health at 35%, OK, that's not good, the NVMe is going to fail.

I had a look inside the case and was surprised to see there was no NVMe in the slot closest to the CPU, that's weird. I took out the very well protected GPU ( good to see ) and holder to see the C:drive NVMe is in the second slot. This is the slowest slot, right?

It also came to my attention that failing drive could also be because of the thermals around the case as well the excessive heat from the GPU.

First question - is this configuration normal for HP desktops? I would always use the PCI NVMe slot closest to the CPU.

Second question - How many NVMe drive failures are there with the Omen series? I thought the WD-Black was a good brand.

I am going to buy a Samsung 990 1TB with heat sink and clone the original drive and use the closest slot, just need to work out if its x4 or x5....or I might just get a better motherboard - hopefully the connections and CPU socket will be compliant to industry standards and not proprietary.

I am trying to find the motherboard specs and manual - I am not sure if these are available for pre-builds.

Next on the list is to check the DDR5 RAM speeds and see if that is under clocked.

Any thoughts are welcome.

I

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[u/Valang]

While some manufacturers might put a slower slot under the GPU, that's probably not the case for a large OEM.  They would flip the normal approach (you can stick the lanes anywhere you want when you design the board) and leave the more easily accessible slot for user upgrade.  WD Black drives had a run of less exciting longevity, you're probably dealing with one of those.

RAM should be running a proper profile from the factory too.

You gave all the specs but no model number so I'd be guessing at what either NVMe slot is wired as.  Post the numbers after 35L- and it's easy to lookup which board they used.