Do you still buy DDR4 in late 2026? If your board has DDR4 slots, yes, and it is the cheaper half of the memory shortage. On October 24, 2026 the cheapest 32GB DDR4 kit on our list cost about $210 on Amazon, while a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit from Corsair sat at about $475. The best DDR4 RAM kit for you depends less on brand than on module type, because a desktop kit, a server RDIMM and a mini PC SODIMM do not swap.
This guide picks five DDR4 kits for the three places DDR4 still lives: 32GB and 64GB desktop kits for AM4 and Intel LGA1700, ECC registered memory for old Dell and HPE servers, and SODIMMs for used mini PCs. If you are reusing an old kit in a new build, our cheap DDR4 PC build covers that side. We pulled every price from the Amazon API on October 24, 2026 and ran the memory test on an Ubuntu 26.04 VM in our homelab, so the numbers below are from this week.
The best DDR4 RAM kits compared
All five picks are sold new on Amazon, and four of them ship from the brand store or a large reseller. Prices move every few days in this shortage, so treat the price column as a band and check the live listing before you buy. The per-gigabyte column is the one to compare, because it is the only fair way to put a 32GB kit next to a 64GB one:
| Kit | Type | Speed and latency | Price (Oct 24) | Per GB | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crucial Pro 32GB (2x16GB) | UDIMM | DDR4-3200 CL22 | about $230 | $7.19 | Most AM4 and LGA1700 builds |
| Silicon Power Turbine 32GB (2x16GB) | UDIMM | DDR4-3200 CL16 (XMP) | about $210 | $6.56 | Lowest price per GB |
| Crucial 64GB (2x32GB) | UDIMM | DDR4-3200 CL22 | about $495 | $7.73 | Proxmox and VM hosts |
| OWC 32GB (2x16GB) ECC RDIMM | RDIMM | DDR4-2666 CL19 | about $270 | $8.41 | Dell R730/R740, HPE Gen9 |
| OWC 64GB (2x32GB) SODIMM | SODIMM | DDR4-3200 CL22 | about $420 | $6.56 | 10th Gen and newer mini PCs |
Look at the per-GB column first. Among the Amazon listings, the cheapest memory per gigabyte is a tie between the Silicon Power desktop kit and the OWC laptop kit at $6.56, so a mini PC upgrade costs no more per gigabyte than a desktop one. The server RDIMMs cost the most per gigabyte, which matters when you plan to fill a 24-slot server: at $8.41 per gigabyte, 384GB of new RDIMMs is over $3,200. Our RAM price forecast explains why DDR4 is still climbing as the factories wind it down.
These are Amazon prices, and buying direct can beat them. Crucial’s own store listed the 64GB kit at about $381 on October 24, about $114 under the Amazon seller, which works out to $5.95 per gigabyte and makes it the cheapest memory in this guide if you buy there. OWC also sells its kits direct, so compare both before you order.
Step 1: Match the module type to your board
Before you compare brands, find out which of the three DDR4 module types your machine takes. They are all DDR4, but the size and the buffering differ: Kingston lists 288 pins for desktop and server DIMMs against 260 for SODIMM, and an RDIMM adds a register chip that a desktop board does not expect. A wrong type either does not fit the slot or does not boot, and you only find out after the box is open:
- UDIMM: desktop boards, AM4 and Intel 12th to 14th Gen DDR4 boards
- RDIMM: servers and workstations with Xeon or EPYC, buffered and ECC
- SODIMM: laptops and mini PCs such as the ThinkCentre Tiny and OptiPlex Micro
Desktop platforms have a ceiling of their own too. AMD lists the Ryzen 7 5700X with UDIMM support up to DDR4-3200 and 128 GB, and its spec page drops the speed to DDR4-2933 with four single-rank sticks and DDR4-2667 with four dual-rank sticks. Intel lists DDR4-3200 for the 12th, 13th and 14th Gen desktop chips. Intel quotes 192 GB for the i5-14400, but that needs 48GB DDR5 sticks, and DDR4 desktop modules stop at 32GB, so a four-slot DDR4 board tops out at 128GB on every one of those generations. On AM4, then, a 2x32GB kit is the faster way to reach 64GB, because two sticks keep the full 3200 speed and four dual-rank sticks do not.
Server boards are stricter. The Dell R730 owner manual lists RDIMMs and LRDIMMs only, at 1333 to 2400 MT/s across 24 slots, and says the two must not be mixed. Kingston adds that ECC unbuffered and registered DIMMs fit the same socket but that mixing them will likely fail to boot, per its server memory FAQ. Faster RDIMMs are fine in an older server, because a DDR4-2666 stick runs at the lower speed the server supports.
ECC on a desktop is a separate question. AMD marks ECC on Ryzen 5000 desktop chips such as the 5700X as requiring motherboard support, and Intel lists no ECC for the B660 and B760 chipsets. If ECC matters for a ZFS box, read our ECC UDIMM picks first, because none of the desktop kits here are ECC.
Step 2: Buy the Crucial Pro 32GB kit for most desktops
We would put the Crucial Pro 2x16GB kit in most AM4 and LGA1700 builds, and it is the one to buy if you are not sure. It runs DDR4-3200 CL22 at 1.2V as its JEDEC speed, so it reaches 3200 without any BIOS change on a Ryzen 5000 or a 12th to 14th Gen Core chip. That matters more than a lower CAS number on a homelab box or an office PC, where nobody wants to chase XMP stability after a BIOS update.
Crucial also ships an XMP 2.0 profile on this kit, but it holds the same 3200 22-22-22 values, which Crucial describes as a way to recover the rated speed on CPUs that default lower. The aluminum heat spreader is low profile with no RGB, and the kit carries a limited lifetime warranty. In short:
- Who it is for: AM4 and DDR4 LGA1700 builds that should just work
- Skip it if: you want tighter timings for gaming and do not mind XMP
- Ranks: Crucial lists 1Rx8 or 2Rx8, so two kits may not match
The Newegg Business listing on Amazon was about $230 when we checked, or $7.19 per gigabyte. Check the live price of the Crucial Pro 32GB kit.
Step 3: Pick the Silicon Power Turbine for the lowest price
If you want the lowest price, the Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine 2x16GB kit is the cheapest 32GB desktop kit on our list, and it is also the fastest on paper. Silicon Power rates it at DDR4-3200 CL16-18-18-38 and 1.35V, which is a gaming-class XMP profile for less money than the Crucial Pro. The catch is that those numbers only apply once you turn on XMP, DOCP or A-XMP in the BIOS.
Silicon Power does not publish the default speed the kit boots at without its profile, so plan on enabling XMP and checking the result. On Intel, the B660 and B760 chipsets are both listed as supporting memory overclocking, so you do not need a Z-series board for the profile. Where it fits:
- Who it is for: budget gaming builds and anyone chasing price per GB
- Skip it if: the box is a server that must stay at stock settings
- Default speed: not published, so check it after you enable XMP
It was about $210 on October 24, or $6.56 per gigabyte. Check the live price of the Silicon Power Turbine 32GB kit.
Step 4: Go to 64GB with the Crucial 2x32GB kit
For a Proxmox host, a Docker box or a build that compiles all day, 64GB in two sticks is where DDR4 still makes the most sense, and our Proxmox RAM sizing guide explains when 32GB stops being enough. The Crucial 2x32GB kit runs DDR4-3200 CL22 at 1.2V with no XMP at all, so it is pure JEDEC memory, and both modules are dual rank 2Rx8. Two sticks also leave two slots free, which keeps the full 3200 speed on Ryzen 5000 and leaves room to grow.
Filling all four slots later with a second kit gets you 128GB, but the AMD table drops four dual-rank sticks to DDR4-2667, so you trade speed for capacity. On a DDR4 Intel board the same 128GB is the ceiling, because four 32GB sticks are as far as DDR4 desktop memory goes. Where it fits and where it does not:
- Who it is for: VM hosts, ZFS without ECC, big Docker stacks
- Skip it if: you want CL16 timings, see the Patriot below
- No heat spreader, which also means no clearance problems
The kit was about $495, or $7.73 per gigabyte, from a third-party seller. If you prefer XMP timings, the Patriot Viper Steel 64GB kit runs DDR4-3200 CL16 at 1.35V once XMP is on and boots at DDR4-2666 without it, for about $500. Check the live price of the Crucial 64GB kit.
Step 5: Fill an old server with OWC ECC RDIMMs
Used Dell R730 and R740 servers give you 24 DIMM slots each, and like the HPE DL380 Gen9 they only take registered or load-reduced memory. The OWC 2x16GB kit is DDR4-2666 CL19 ECC registered at 1.2V with 2Rx4 modules, sold by the OWC store on Amazon, and Dell lists DDR4 RDIMMs for both generations of box. OWC does not name the R730 or R740 in its own compatibility list, so the fit here comes from the Dell manuals, not from OWC testing. Dell lists the R730 at up to 2400 MT/s with E5 v4 CPUs (2133 with v3) and the R740 at up to 2933 MT/s. In both boxes the CPU sets the final speed, so the kit runs at its full 2666 only in an R740 whose Xeon supports it.
Match what is already in the server before you add anything. Dell says RDIMMs and LRDIMMs must not be mixed, and HPE says the same for the DL380 Gen9. HPE also adds that the memory performance listed in its documents requires HPE SmartMemory, so expect third-party sticks to be outside that promise. Read the rank and type from the existing sticks first, then buy to match:
- Who it is for: Dell R730 and R740 owners filling empty slots
- Skip it if: the server already runs LRDIMMs, buy LRDIMMs
- Cheaper single stick: Samsung 32GB DDR4-2666 RDIMM
The OWC kit was about $270, or $8.41 per gigabyte. A single Samsung 32GB DDR4-2666 RDIMM was about $259 from a server reseller, which is cheaper per gigabyte, but Samsung no longer hosts a datasheet for that part and one retailer lists it as end of life. Check the live price of the OWC 32GB RDIMM kit.
If you want 64GB in one order, OWC also sells a 4x16GB DDR4-3200 RDIMM kit for about $554. Those sticks are rated DDR4-3200, so in an R740 they run at whatever the Xeon supports, 2933 MT/s at best with one DIMM per channel, and the price per gigabyte rises to $8.65.
Step 6: Max out a mini PC with the OWC 64GB SODIMM kit
A used 10th Gen mini PC with 64GB is one of the best small Proxmox nodes you can buy, and the OWC 2x32GB SODIMM kit is the cheapest way we found to fill one. It is DDR4-3200 CL22 at 1.2V, non-ECC and unbuffered, with 2Rx8 modules and a lifetime warranty from OWC. At $6.56 per gigabyte it matched the cheapest desktop kit on our list.
Check the official ceiling of your model before you order 64GB. The Lenovo PSREF lists the ThinkCentre M720q and M920q at 32GB of DDR4-2666, while the 10th Gen M70q and M90q are listed at 64GB of DDR4-2933, and HP lists the EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini at 32GB. Our used tiny PC guide has the full model table, including which 8th Gen boxes have been seen running 64GB anyway.
- Who it is for: M70q, M90q, OptiPlex 7080 Micro and similar
- Skip it if: the box lists 32GB, buy the Crucial 2x16GB SODIMM kit
- Speed: a DDR4-3200 kit runs at the 2666 or 2933 the CPU supports
The OWC kit was about $420 from the OWC store. For a 32GB box, the Crucial 32GB SODIMM kit was about $217. If you have not bought the mini PC yet, our mini PC picks for Proxmox cover newer boxes that ship with DDR5. Check the live price of the OWC 64GB SODIMM kit.
Step 7: Test a new kit before the return window closes
A new kit can arrive faulty, and you want to find out in the first few days, not after the return window. We run two checks on every memory change: read what the firmware sees, then write test patterns over a large block of RAM. Start with dmidecode, which reads the SMBIOS memory tables:
sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -E '^\s+(Form Factor|Locator|Size|Type|Speed|Configured (Memory|Clock) Speed|Part Number|Rank|Manufacturer|Error Correction Type|Maximum Capacity|Number Of Devices):'We ran it on nas01, an Ubuntu 26.04 VM on our Proxmox node, and this is where we hit our snag. A VM does not see your sticks at all. It sees the table QEMU makes up:
Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC
Maximum Capacity: 4 GB
Number Of Devices: 1
Size: 4 GB
Form Factor: DIMM
Locator: DIMM 0
Type: RAM
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer: QEMU
Part Number: Not Specified
Rank: Unknown
Configured Memory Speed: UnknownEvery line here describes the virtual machine, not the hardware. The manufacturer is QEMU, the type is plain RAM rather than DDR4, and the speed fields are unknown. Worse, it reports Multi-bit ECC, although the host under it is pve01, a Lenovo mini PC with non-ECC SODIMMs, and our consumer-board nodes read Error Correction Type: None on bare metal in our ECC test. So if your board runs Proxmox, ESXi or any hypervisor, run dmidecode on the host shell, never inside a guest. On real hardware, check that Size matches each stick, that Type reads DDR4, and that Configured Memory Speed shows the rated speed of the kit once XMP is on.
For the second check, memtester writes and reads patterns over memory that the OS hands to it. You will find it in the Ubuntu and Debian repositories:
sudo apt install -y memtesterGive it as much RAM as you can spare while leaving the OS room to breathe, and one loop. We gave it 2GB of the 4GB in the VM:
sudo memtester 2G 1Every sub-test should end with ok. A single failure means bad memory or an unstable XMP setting. Our run passed all of them:
That single pass over 2GB took 11 minutes and 50 seconds on our VM, which works out to about six minutes per gigabyte per loop on this hardware. At that rate, testing 28GB of a 32GB kit takes close to three hours, so we start it before bed and read the result in the morning.
memtester only tests memory the running OS can free, so it never touches the part the kernel holds. For a full pass over every address, boot Memtest86+ from a USB stick and leave it running overnight. If either test fails, try the kit at stock speed with XMP off. A kit that fails at stock speed goes back.
Kits we left off the list and why
A few popular DDR4 kits did not make the cut, and the reasons are useful when you shop for your own. None of them are bad memory, but each one costs more than it should or hides a trap in the listing:
- DDR4-3600 kits on Intel: Intel lists DDR4-3200, so the extra speed is overclocking you pay for
- RGB kits: you pay for lighting, not speed or capacity
- Two kits instead of one: XMP is validated per kit, so two 2x16GB kits may not hold XMP together
- Unbranded SODIMM bundles: no published ranks or warranty terms
- Used server pulls with no return option: a bad stick costs you the full price
If you are deciding between this and a new DDR5 platform, the gap is still large. The 32GB DDR4 picks here cost about $210 to $230 against about $475 for 32GB of DDR5-6000, so a DDR4 board you already own saves real money. Our DDR5 RAM guide covers the other side, and our used workstation picks list the Xeon towers that take the same RDIMMs as the servers above.
