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DDR5 SODIMM capable kits for ESXi

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After successfully confirming the new non-binary 48GB DDR5 SODIMM modules (96GB total) is fully functional with any DDR5 capable system, I started receiving questions about which DDR5 kits are currently available today and that can also be used with ESXi?

The ASUS PN64-E1 is definitely a top contender for anyone in the market for a new or updated VMware Homelab and it was also the system that I had used to verify the new DDR5 memory. In addition to the PN64-E1, the following kits listed below from my research also supports DDR5 SODIMM memory and would also be compatible with ESXi.

Note: While there are other DDR5 kits out in the market, especially those with an AMD CPU, they are not viable with ESXi as the onboard networking uses a Realtek network adapter and there are no ESXi drivers from Realtek.

If folks are aware of other kits that are both DDR5 compatible and would also function with ESXi, feel free to share by leaving a comment below.

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ESXi on ASUS PN64-E1

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There are not many small form factor kits out there right now that supports Thunderbolt 4, so I was really interested in what ASUS had to offer with their release of the PN64-E1.


I have actually never worked with an ASUS kit before, so I was definitely looking forward to getting my hands on one of this system and see what capabilities it can enable for the VMware community. I initially learned about this platform last year with their PN64, but in speaking with ASUS, they mentioned I should really check out their newest offering, the PN64-E1, which has several new enhancements over their previous model.

So here is your first look at the ASUS PN64-E1!

UPDATE (02/20/25) - 128GB (2x64GB) DDR5 SODIMM memory is fully functional with PN64-E1, please see this blog post for more information.

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Frigate NVR with Coral TPU & iGPU passthrough using ESXi on Intel NUC

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For the past couple of weeks, I have been investigating some issues reported by the community when using ESXi with the popular Google Coral Edge TPU for accelerating machine learning (ML) inferencing. Fortunately, with the help from one of our engineers, Songtao, we were able to find a solution! You can find the complete write-up HERE and it also works with the latest ESXi 8.0 Update 1 release.

I was actually surprised at how popular the combination of the Google TPU and ESXi was from the community, which I guess should not come as a surprise, especially with the capabilities of ESXi coupled with all the interests in AI/ML these days.


Another popular use case of the Google TPU, which I had recently learned about is for real-time AI object detection using the Frigate NVR (Network Video Recorder) software, which is a commonly deployed solution that enable various home security and automation capabilities.

In fact, during a conversation with my buddy Alan Renouf, who is a Product Manager focused on running modern Edge workloads and is also a Frigate user, I discovered that the Frigate stack, which encompasses inferencing, video decoding, and the integration of cameras and sensors, closely resembles the components that you would find in many Edge deployments with simliar set of use cases.

Funny enough, I ended up leveraging a lot of my existing work with running ESXi on Intel NUCs and iGPU passthrough, while learning about and setting up Frigate! This was definitely an interesting project to explore and as shared, I now have a complete working setup with the full setup and write-up below.

JFYI - I have already submitted a PR 6576 to update the Frigate ESXi documentation as it is severely out of date and help folks quickly find the latest setup instructions.

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