DGX Spark OEM Editions Compared — Chassis, Cooling, Storage, and Support
Every DGX Spark ships the same GB10 superchip, the same 128GB of memory, and the same 1 PFLOP FP4 ceiling. So the buying decision comes down to what NVIDIA left to its partners: the chassis, the cooling design, the SSD, and the warranty. Independent bench testing shows how much that actually matters.
When a platform is defined this tightly by its designer, the interesting question is not "which one is fastest" — the silicon is identical — but "which one suits how I will actually run it". StorageReview put five DGX Spark editions on the bench under identical load. Here is what separated them, and how to read that as a buyer in Malaysia.
What is identical across every edition
No OEM changes any of this:
- NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip — 20-core Arm (10× Cortex-X925 + 10× Cortex-A725) plus a Blackwell GPU
- 128GB LPDDR5x coherent unified memory, ~273 GB/s bandwidth
- Up to 1 PFLOP FP4 tensor performance
- NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NIC, 200 Gbps, for linking two units
- DGX OS software stack
No partner overclocks, unlocks, or otherwise changes the chip's performance ceiling.
What the thermal testing found
In NVIDIA DGX Spark Thermal Test: How OEM Cooling Designs Stack Up, StorageReview ran five systems — NVIDIA Founders Edition, Dell, Gigabyte, Acer, and ASUS — through vLLM online serving benchmarks with OpenAI's GPT-OSS-120B model, across Equal, Prefill-Heavy, and Decode-Heavy scenarios at batch sizes from 1 to 128, under identical environmental conditions with metrics sampled every second.
Key findings:
- Acer ran coldest by a wide margin. CPU temperature peaked at 74.6°C versus 87–88°C for the others — a 10–14°C advantage. GPU peaked at 68°C versus 80–82°C. NVMe peaked at 51.8°C versus 58–63°C for the rest.
- The Founders Edition, Dell, and Gigabyte clustered together, essentially matching NVIDIA's reference thermal design.
- Gigabyte stood out for balancing cooling with GPU power efficiency. Peak power during the Prefill-Heavy run ranged only from 69.3W (Acer) to 76.0W (Gigabyte) across all five systems.
- No edition was reported to thermally throttle, and peak power sat within a few watts of the others regardless of cooling design.
StorageReview's overall verdict: "the partner models perform very similarly, and users cannot go wrong with any of them."
How to read that as a buyer
The performance-critical takeaway is that badge does not buy you throughput. Where cooling design does matter is operating conditions and longevity:
- Air-conditioned rack, bursty inference workload: any edition is fine. The temperature spread does not cost you tokens per second here.
- Warm desk, non-air-conditioned room, or 24/7 sustained fine-tuning: more cooling headroom means lower fan noise, cooler and longer-lived NVMe storage, and more margin on hot days. This nudges toward the roomier chassis and the designs that tested coolest.
- Small mini-PC form factors trade thermal headroom for a smaller desk footprint. Know which you are optimising for before you buy.
The editions Khalbyte supplies
| Edition | SSD options | Warranty / support | Notes | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS Ascent GX10 | 1TB or 2TB | 1 year | Compact chassis; tested near the reference thermal profile | Desk-side development box, lab prototyping, tighter budget |
| Dell Pro Max with GB10 | 2TB or 4TB | 3 years Pro Support | Matched NVIDIA's reference thermal design in testing | Business deployment needing responsive on-site support |
| Gigabyte AI TOP ATOM | 1TB or 4TB | 3 years | Best cooling-to-power balance of the tested systems | 24/7 sustained inference or fine-tuning, warmer rooms |
| Lenovo ThinkStation PGX | 4TB | 3 years Premier Support | Workstation-grade chassis; shares the reference board | Enterprise IT with an existing Lenovo fleet and Premier contract |
| Leadtek DGX Spark Founders Edition | 4TB | 1 year | NVIDIA's exact reference design | Buyers who want the reference build with minimal markup |
| MSI EdgeXpert 42SMY | 4TB NVMe M.2 (Gen 5) | 3 years | Fastest storage interface in this list | Storage-bound workloads, large dataset shuffling |
Note: the Leadtek Founders Edition is the same reference design StorageReview tested as the "Founders Edition". Lenovo and MSI were not among StorageReview's five systems, but both use the same GB10 board in their own chassis.
Decision shortcuts
- Lowest cost, shortest path: ASUS Ascent GX10, 1TB
- Most storage plus long support: Dell Pro Max 4TB, or Lenovo ThinkStation PGX
- Runs hot and constant: Gigabyte AI TOP ATOM
- Want the reference NVIDIA build: Leadtek Founders Edition
- Fastest disk: MSI EdgeXpert (Gen 5 NVMe)
- When unsure on capacity: take 4TB — model checkpoints and datasets fill 1TB quickly
What should not change your decision
Raw AI throughput. The silicon is identical, testing showed peak power within roughly 7W across editions, and none of them throttled. Do not pay a premium expecting more tokens per second from one badge over another — spend the difference on storage capacity, a longer warranty, or the support tier that matches your operational risk.
Frequently asked questions
Do different DGX Spark OEM editions have different AI performance?
No. Every edition ships the same GB10 superchip, 128GB of unified memory, and 1 PFLOP FP4 ceiling. StorageReview's testing found peak power within about 7W across five editions, with no thermal throttling.
Which DGX Spark has the best cooling?
In StorageReview's five-system test, Acer ran coldest — CPU peak around 74.6°C versus 87–88°C for the others. Among widely available editions, Gigabyte balanced cooling and power efficiency best, while Dell and the Founders Edition matched NVIDIA's reference design.
Does cooling affect performance on the DGX Spark?
For bursty inference, there is no measurable difference. For 24/7 sustained workloads or warm rooms, more cooling headroom means quieter operation, cooler SSD temperatures, and more thermal margin — but no edition throttled in testing.
How much SSD storage should I get?
Take 4TB if you store model checkpoints and datasets locally. 1TB to 2TB is enough for a pure inference box that pulls models on demand.
What is the difference between the Leadtek Founders Edition and the OEM editions?
The Leadtek Founders Edition is NVIDIA's exact reference design. The OEM editions from ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, Lenovo, and MSI use the same GB10 board in their own chassis, with their own cooling, storage options, and warranty terms.
Can I mix different OEM editions when linking two units?
The ConnectX-7 200 Gbps link operates at the board level, so pairing is about the GB10 hardware rather than the chassis brand. Matching editions keeps firmware and support arrangements simpler.
See more
New to the platform? Start with NVIDIA DGX Spark and the GB10 Superchip: a practical guide. Khalbyte supplies every edition above and helps match the chassis, storage, and support term to how you will actually run the machine — see our IT supply service or contact our team.