AMD's Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform is finally here, with preorders for the powerful $3,999 mini PC now live in the U.S. through Micro Center. The company’s new developer platform is effectively an answer to Nvidia's DGX Spark, as both systems are designed as compact AI workstations capable of running large language models locally. First unveiled at CES 2026, the developer kit is available in two variants that feature identical hardware but ship with different operating systems- Linux or Windows 11 Pro.
Notably, the DGX Spark was originally introduced at the same $3,999 price point last year. However, Nvidia recently increased the price to $4,699 due to the ongoing global supply constraints affecting LPDDR5X memory and NAND flash. Apart from pricing, the Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform offers native Windows support, whereas the DGX Spark is limited to Linux-based environments. This gives users greater flexibility, including the option to dual-boot and use both operating systems.
The Ryzen AI Halo dev kit is powered by the flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, featuring 16 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock speed of 3 GHz and a max boost clock speed of 5.1 GHz. It also features 128GB of unified LPDDR5X-8000 memory, 16MB of L2 cache, and 64MB of L3 cache, onboard RDNA 3.5 Radeon 8060S graphics with 40 compute units, and a dedicated NPU capable of 50 TOPS.
The mini-PC measures 149 x 149 x 43.18 mm, has an aluminum chassis, and includes a 2TB M.2 SSD, while wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. As for I/O, it is strikingly similar to what Nvidia offers, including a 10 GbE LAN, four USB-C ports (one for power input), and an HDMI 2.1b port. Unfortunately, there is no NVLink, which, in Nvidia’s case, allows two DGK Spark machines to pair. To cool the Strix Halo chip inside AMD, it uses a unique cooling solution that includes a baseplate, direct-touch flat heatpipes, an aluminum channel heatsink, and two lateral airflow blower-style fans.
If you are a developer or simply interested in experimenting with local LLMs, Micro Center is currently accepting preorders for the Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform, with local pickup available on July 10. Those looking for alternatives can also consider the Corsair AI Workstation 300, a slightly larger AI-focused system based on the same Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor. It is also currently listed at a lower starting price of $2,699 for the 1TB storage model and $3,399 for the 4TB model.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.