128GB memory mini PCs is now a reality with 64GB DDR5 SODIMM

The long awaited 64GB DDR5 SODIMM memory modules from Crucial was just released this week! 😁

I was so excited about the news, I quickly splurged on a pair of these brand new modules, which are currently priced at $364 USD on Amazon! 😅💰

As of publishing this blog post, there is currently no "official" support for these new 64GB DDR5 SODIMM modules in any small form factor (SFF) or mini PC systems.

However, if we look back at history when 32GB DDR4 SODIMM modules were first introduced, I had successfully demonstrated their functionality (may have been the first) even though they were not "officially" supported with the existing platforms at the time which also included the Intel NUC 6, which was actually released several years back! This was also the case when the 48GB DDR5 SODIMM modules was released a couple of years ago and I also was able to demonstrate that the new memory capacity was usable with the existing compatible DDR5 SODIMM systems at the time.

The ASUS NUC 14 Pro is the latest DDR5 SODIMM compatible system that I currently have at my disposal, so I plugged in the new memory modules and powered on the system 🤞

The system actually took longer to boot than normal, I had gasped as the screen was blank for what felt like a couple of minutes and then I was able to enter into the system BIOS. As you can see from the screenshot below, the full 128GB of memory was fully detected 🥳 but interestingly, the DIMM slots was detected as not populated 🤔

Nonetheless, the first challenge has been cleared but the real test, which is most important for majority of my readers is whether VMware ESXi can see the fully memory capacity!

No surprises, it can indeed as you can see below with the ASUS NUC 14 Pro with 128GB memory (non-NVMe Tiering) 🥰

With the ability to go up to 128GB of memory within a small form factor system, I think we are going to see even more use cases open up within our industry and allow users to do even more with these tiny yet powerful systems that will only continue to grow in popularity and demand. For VMware-based users, this means the ability to easily deploy our VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) solution without needing a ton of hardware, which is always great for learning or testing purposes.

While the new 64GB SODIMM modules are not cheap by any means, you can see from the table below that the prices for prior generations of the memory technologies have dropped significantly from where they initially started from to where they are now. As adoption continues to ramp up this year with new kits on the horizon, several of which I am personally excited for and would greatly benefit from the new 64GB SODIMM memory modules, we will continue to see prices go down!

Disclaimer: The product links above do contain my Amazon affiliate link, in case you would like to support me and help recoup some of the costs. All experiments, past and present, have been completely funded out of my own pocket, any support is welcome!

In the coming weeks, I will also be experimenting with other DDR5 capable systems and update this blog post with systems that will fully recognize the new 64GB DDR5 SODIMM modules, so feel free to check back or even share your own findings and successes.

Verified