Here's what the $6,000 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box looks like

It's covered in 1,000 air vents, which makes it look a bit like an oversized Lego brick.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

The Surface Laptop Ultra may have been the highlight of Microsoft's AI-focused Windows event, but the company also showed off another intriguing piece of high-end hardware. The $6,000 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a powerful desktop PC optimized for AI development. 

Microsoft offered a glimpse of the device earlier this year, but we just got our first good look at it. The company has previously called it a "compact PC," but after looking at it in person I'm not sure that's how I would describe it.

It may be relatively compact for its power, but it's still a beast of a machine. It's covered in air vents, which makes it look a bit like an oversized Lego brick. The box itself is relatively thin, but it's long. And it sits on an elevated base, so it will take up a sizable footprint on most desks. It's also surprisingly heavy. Microsoft hasn't shared a weight but I had trouble grabbing it with one hand. It's at least 5 to 6 lbs, possibly a bit heavier, and the base makes it awkward to hold.

Karissa Bell for Engadget.

That said, I don't think this is really meant to be a portable machine. It seems more in line with Apple's vision for the Mac Studio, a similarly beefy desktop (albeit one with a smaller overall footprint). The Surface RTX Spark Dev Box has a 6,1444-core GPU, 128GB of memory and a 2TB SSD. We didn't get to see it powered on during Microsoft's event but I am curious how much heat this thing will put off with more intensive tasks. It's covered in 1,000 air vents, so clearly heat management was a priority. 

Karissa Bell for Engadget

It has a decent number of ports, though I suspect some may be disappointed there aren't more. On the back side are three USB-C ports, a headphone jack, an HDMI port, ethernet and USB-A port. That should be enough for a decent monitor and whatever peripherals you want to connect, though unlike the Mac Studio, there's no card slot. 

The Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is available now for pre-order for $5,999.99.