Fed up with expensive DDR5? ASRock's new HUDIMM memory is riding to the
rescue but it's not a silver bullet for the RAM crisis

Date:
Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
ASRock's new RAM is about 'ensuring Intel users have access to the benefits
of DDR5 memory in the years ahead' but there's a catch.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter ASRock has revealed a new trick to beat high RAM prices HUDIMM DDR5 RAM modules are considerably more affordable They cut back on performance, however, so it's a trade-off here There's a new type of DDR5 RAM in town, and it's cheaper, but before you start rejoicing that all your memory-related prayers have been answered , bear in mind that there are weighty caveats attached here.

Tom's Hardware noticed the announcement from ASRock about its new HUDIMM
DDR5 RAM module for motherboards with Intel chipsets. In a nutshell, these
are designed to be a good deal more affordable, but to achieve that, performance is dropped considerably. A standard stick of DDR5 (UDIMM) uses a two-subchannel architecture (2 x 32-bit), but with HUDIMM (the 'HU' stands
for Half Unbuffered), you get a single 32-bit subchannel instead. Article continues below You may like DDR5 RAM hits painful new high and price-hike misery will likely continue RAM crisis shows signs of easing as DDR5 prices drop but there's a catch Raspberry Pi is now 70% pricier but there's some promising DDR5 news

That sounds very technical, but what's happening is simple enough the bandwidth and density of the RAM stick is effectively halved. And sticks that need fewer memory modules can, of course, be made a good deal more cheaply, because you're only buying half the chips to produce them.

As the company observed on X : "ASRock's HUDIMM architecture reduces chip count and cost, enabling more affordable and flexible system builds for users and system integrators worldwide."

Intel's Robert Hallock, VP and GM for its Enthusiast Channel Segment group, commented: "Innovations like ASRock's One sub-channel DRAM technology are crucial to ensuring desktop computing remains accessible despite the rising demand and costs for DDR5 memory.

"Intel's grateful for ASRock's support in bringing this to market for our 600/700/800-series chipsets, ensuring Intel users have more access to the benefits of DDR5 memory in the years ahead." Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

So, as noted, these new RAM offerings are compatible with ASRock's Intel 600, 700, and 800-series motherboards.

ASRock has hooked up with TeamGroup to produce these HUDIMM sticks, and needless to say, they'll be entry-level offerings. This RAM will also be manufactured for laptops , too, in the form of HSODIMMs.

Asus is reportedly looking into this type of memory, too, as per leaks on X , so we could see a broader shift towards HUDIMMs as the year progresses. What to read next AMD could minimize RAM price hike pain by bundling its CPUs and DDR5 memory Amazon 'flash deal' for DDR5 RAM costs 2.5x what it did just 4 months ago TrendForce report sparks hope that we might be turning a corner in the RAM crisis Analysis: sign of the RAM times (Image credit: ASRock) The catch is that the cutbacks made to this RAM mean that performance is going to be a lot slower. Is that a compromise you want to make? Perhaps it is, given the cost of DDR5 RAM right now, which has reached extortionate levels, frankly.

The twist is that ASRock's new way of working here can run alongside standard DDR5 RAM, which remains compatible in these motherboards. HUDIMM offers asymmetrical dual-channel support at the BIOS level, so you should be okay to put a HUDIMM next to a standard UDIMM, and they'll work fine in dual-channel mode (with 3 x 32-bit subchannels active one from the HUDIMM, and a pair
from the UDIMM).

If you had an 8GB HUDIMM stick alongside a 16GB UDIMM, this would, in theory, be a faster implementation than a single 24GB UDIMM stick. So you could, say, start with just an 8GB HUDIMM (or 16GB), and then expand with a UDIMM later (when pricing drops back down to a more reasonable level).

As Tom's points out, though, ASRock's marketing indicates a not
inconsiderable 90ns latency with this RAM standard, and the proof will be in the pudding of how these sorts of theorized combos work out.

Meanwhile, HUDIMMs certainly represent one shortcut to lower DDR5 RAM
pricing, but the compromise in terms of performance (away from mix-and-match scenarios) is going to be a heavy price in itself. Still, this may be an option some people wish to exercise, and I can't say I blame them, looking at what retailers are asking for run-of-the-mill DDR5 these days.

What this also serves as is a reminder of just how bad the RAM crisis has got , and the fact that hardware makers are looking at longer-term solutions such as this scheme isn't much comfort as to the prospective duration of this
whole affair. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best laptops 1. Best overall: Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M5 2. Best budget: Apple MacBook Neo 3. Best Windows 11 laptop Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch 4. Best thin and light: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 5. Best Ultrabook Asus Zenbook S 16 Follow TechRadar on Google News and add
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/memory/fed-up-with-expensive-ddr5-asrocks- new-hudimm-memory-is-riding-to-the-rescue-but-its-not-a-silver-bullet-for-the- ram-crisis


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