Microsoft opened US pre-orders for the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box on October 7, 2026. In particular, the compact NVIDIA RTX Spark desktop now has a firm price. The Microsoft Store lists it at $5,999.99. Surface lead Brett Ostrum’s Devices Blog lists $5,999 MSRP.
The machine is exclusive to Microsoft.com in the United States. Microsoft says it will begin shipping this November. That is later than Surface Laptop Ultra. By comparison, the laptop starts at $2,599 and is due October 16.
What $5,999.99 actually buys
The Store configuration is a single SKU. You get an NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X. That chip pairs a 6,144-core Blackwell RTX GPU with a 20-core CPU. Unified memory is 128 GB of LPDDR5x. Storage is a removable Gen 5 2 TB SSD. Besides, Windows 11 Pro is the OS. In addition, the box includes a 165W power supply. For example, a quick start guide and safety papers ride along. Microsoft Complete for three years is a $599 add-on.
Microsoft’s petaflop claim is a footnote, however. The Devices Blog cites “up to 1 petaflop of AI performance.” That figure is theoretical FP4 math using NVIDIA’s sparsity feature. Unified memory is also shared. The GPU cannot address the full 128 GB. Consequently, the usable slice depends on the workload. Those caveats sit on the same page as the $5,999 MSRP.
Microsoft aims the chassis at long local jobs. The product page cites a 100W thermal envelope. An anodized aluminum body carries 1,000 air vents. Microsoft says that shell doubles as a cooling system. The Store then lists 12.85 by 6.77 by 1.69 inches with the foot. Weight is 4.4 pounds. Therefore the Store marks the 2 TB drive as removable. Nothing else in that configurator is a buyer option.
Developer tools and connectivity
Software is the other half of the pitch. The October 7 post places the Dev Box in Microsoft’s Project Zenith family. It ships with Visual Studio Code, Git, GitHub CLI, and GitHub Copilot. WSL, Python, and Node are already in place. The product page also calls out GitHub Copilot CLI and PowerShell 7. Intelligent Terminal sits in the command line. Coreutils for Windows is there too. Specifically, Microsoft says the image is developer-first. In other words, you spend less time configuring the box.
Ports need a careful read. The Store spec table lists two USB-C ports and HDMI 2.1b. USB-A at 5 Gbps and a 3.5 mm jack join that list, plus Wi-Fi 7. The product page also names Ethernet. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s own Store port photo shows a wired Ethernet jack. It sits on the foot next to USB-A and the power inlet. Nevertheless, the Store table does not list DisplayPort. The official port photo does not show one either.
Who it is for, and how Microsoft sells it
Next, Ostrum’s post is blunt about the job. Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is available for pre-order for $5,999 (MSRP), exclusively on Microsoft.com in the U.S. and will begin shipping to customers this November. He frames it as desk-side compute for developers. AI engineers and technical teams get local inference, evaluation, and experimentation. The same NVIDIA RTX Spark platform powers Surface Laptop Ultra. Then the laptop leaves the desk. This box stays on it.
Furthermore, Microsoft says the hardware can run AI models exceeding 120 billion parameters. It also claims large context windows. A June Devices Blog post went further. It claimed 120B-plus models with a 1 million-token context locally. That June post is still the fuller hardware write-up. Today’s news is the price, the US storefront lock, and the November ship window. Tech My Money covered the June Dev Box announcement when Microsoft still dated availability as later this year.
Security and local AI workloads
Moreover, security language is standard Surface. The product page calls it a Windows 11 secured-core PC. It points to BitLocker, Microsoft Defender, Entra ID, and Intune. Ostrum adds Microsoft Execution Containers for agent containment. Later Windows work will separate agent activity from user activity. That path uses Entra and Agent 365 controls. As a result, the pitch is local models first. Cloud tokens wait until a job actually needs them. Microsoft Dev Box remains the overflow cloud seat in that same paragraph.
Buyers get one hardware choice and one store. There is no UK or EU listing in this drop. Likewise, there is no second memory or storage SKU on the US configurator. If you want the traveling version of the same silicon, Surface Laptop Ultra is the other pre-order. Finally, if you want the desk box, Microsoft is asking $5,999.99. It is US-only, on Microsoft’s own site, with November on the calendar.
