Building an AI workstation is rarely about buying the single fastest component on the market; it is about finding the specific "sweet spot" that fits your workload. Whether you are prioritizing VRAM capacity, PCIe lane availability, or thermal management, the right build depends entirely on how you plan to use your machine. The goal isn't just raw power, but the ability to run the tools you need efficiently.
This is the first article in a new AI Hardware series talking about the requirements for running AI Models and why paying attention to these things can help you build a better AI Workstation. If anything learning why a DGX Spark or Mac Mini work but, can also be really slow.
2026 marks the 30th year for Lexar and they started CES off with an announcement that they were going to be the global storage partner for the Argentina National Football (Soccer) Team and launched a number of AI focused storage devices.
According to CES 2026 material there were over 4100 exhibitors registered to attend along with several unknowns looking to take advantage of CES by hosting their own events in area hotels. It is not practical to see everything but with a good pair of shoes and a crisp Pepsi I attempted to do the impossible.
Pro Gamers Group was available at CES showing of some of the latest products available in their catalog including a number of ultra light mice, a racing chair and some rather impressive GPU waterblocks.
Mushkin was showing two new NVMe drives at CES 2019 that will compete in both segments of NVMe performance.
Of course this would not be an EVGA CES without a KPE video card launch and they are showing a monster. This ground up RTX 2080Ti design features a custom PCB, and hybrid GPU cooler however, there is a dedicated waterblock version for those with custom loops and the love for the KPE.
NVIDIA lifted the embargo on the new RTX 20-Series and in admits of the rejoicing and Ray Tracing goodness some questions remained, namely if upgrading to RTX is worth it.
EVGA had a few things to show during Computex 2018 including a couple new motherboards, an update to their X299 Dark UEFI that adds a stress test and auto overclocking feature. The final is more halo and features automatic LN2 overclocking.
Phanteks announced a new version of the EVOLV called the EVOLV X and it is good! All the bells, all the whistles and all the RGB now with vertical gpu support.
Speaking of tasteful the new X399 Gaming Xtreme motherboard is amazing. This will be a halo product from Aorus/Gigabyte occupying what would normally be considered a UD9. I am really looking forward to getting one of these into the lab.
Aorus X870E Elite X3D Ice Motherboard ReviewCrimson Desert Performance Benchmark ReviewHighPoint Announces Rocket 1604L: The World’s Most Compact PCIe Gen5 x16 Retimer AIC for AI and Industrial EdgeTurboQuant - the Pied Piper Technology for AITurboQuant: Revolutionizing AI Efficiency Through Extreme Compression – A Game Changer for Search and Large Language ModelsBuilding a Multi-GPU AI Workstation on a BudgetGAMEMAX Introduces MAX PB Series ATX 3.1 80PLUS Bronze PSUsCOLORFUL Presents iGame Z890 ULTRA-S W and iGame Z890M ULTRA Z MotherboardsTEAMGROUP Introduces The T-CREATE CLASSIC H514 M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSDBalancing Model Quality and Hardware Demands in AI Workstations