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.
When I established Ninjalane and later Hardware Asylum the goal was to feature high-end and hard to get computer hardware. Over the years this has served me well and allowed me the chance to deep dive into some of the best motherboard designs on the planet. However, that never made me rich which seems to be a trend with the products on display by Gigabyte during Computex
I remember when Cloud Computing was a popular subject at Computex there were cloud specific motherboards available from ASRock and the same was true during the Cryptomining craze. As a result it would seem out of character if ASRock was to skip AI and, you would be right.
SilverStone is hitting the Enterprise AI segment rather heavily during Computex 2024 with a number of new chassis designs to support multiple graphics cards which can be rack mounted in a data center or standalone as a private on-premise AI compute server.
Much like with CES there are a few companies that buck the trend and hold their presentations at alternative locations. Corsair was one of them opting to have a remote display showing off the latest in gaming gear, XLR audio interfaces, teleprompters, fans and keyboards.
beQuiet was showing their latest chassis design the Light Base 600 which is a smaller version of the Light Base 900 offering a corner office glass side and feet that can be repositioned to invert or flatten the display position of the case.
The first keynote of CES 2024 was presented by Dr Lisa Su, the current CEO of AMD. The presentation focused on Connecting AI and how AMD products are helping to shape how we will be able to use AI on a daily bases from portable laptops to high-end server solutions and scalable data centers.
HighPoint 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 WorkstationsEnGenius Brings AI-Powered Analytics and Sophisticated Cloud Management to Existing ONVIF CamerasG.SKILL DDR5 Memory Kits Confirmed as Intel XMP 3.0 'Ready' for Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus Series Processors