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Cisco UCS, generation by generation.

UCS is a server line with a network product's habits. The C-series rack servers can be bought and run like any other rack server; the B-series blades and the newer X-Series nodes cannot, because they only exist inside a chassis with fabric interconnects in front of them. Which family you are buying decides how much else you have to buy.

37models listed
12refurbished
4generations compared

Generations are the M suffix — C240 M4, M6, M7, M8 — and they behave like generations anywhere else: sockets, memory and PCIe move together. The bigger discontinuity in this line is not a generation step at all. It is the move from the 5108 blade chassis and B-series blades to the X9508 chassis and X-Series compute nodes, which is a chassis replacement rather than an upgrade path.

The table is the C240, the 2U two-socket rack machine, across the generations we hold. The same steps apply to the 1U C220 of each generation.

C240, four generation steps

4 steps

Figures come from the specification sheets of the C240 units we list. The C220 of the same generation shares the platform in a 1U chassis.

M4

C240 M4

Processor
1 or 2 Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3/v4, up to 22 cores per socket, Intel C610
Memory
24 DDR4 slots, up to 2400 MT/s
Storage & I/O
Up to 24 SFF or 12 LFF SAS/SATA plus 2 internal boot drives; 12 Gb modular RAID with 1/2/4 GB cache; up to 6 PCIe Gen3 slots

What changed. The E5-2600 era rack node — contemporary with a PowerEdge R730.

What it means. Cheap, plentiful and fine for continuity work or a lab. Its ceiling is memory speed and PCIe Gen3, which is what you meet first if you try to make it a modern storage or GPU host.

Figures above are from the specification sheet of:
M6

C240 M6

Processor
2 sockets, 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake), up to 40 cores per socket
Memory
32 DDR4 slots, up to 3200 MT/s; up to 12 TB with persistent memory
Storage & I/O
Up to 28 SFF SAS/SATA with up to 8 NVMe, or 26 NVMe, or 16 LFF with 2 rear SFF; 8 PCIe Gen4 slots plus mLOM

What changed. Eight more DIMM slots, PCIe Gen4, and NVMe as a front-end configuration rather than an add-on.

What it means. The value step in this line. If you are replacing M4s and the workload is virtualisation rather than accelerated compute, this is usually where the money stops working harder.

Figures above are from the specification sheets of:
M7

C240 M7

Processor
2 sockets, 4th/5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable, up to 64 cores per socket
Memory
32 DDR5 slots, up to 5600 MT/s, up to 8 TB
Storage & I/O
Up to 28 SFF SAS/SATA plus up to 8 direct-attach NVMe, or 28 all-NVMe; 24 Gb tri-mode RAID; up to 8 PCIe Gen4 or 4 PCIe Gen5 slots plus mLOM/OCP 3.0

What changed. DDR4 to DDR5, PCIe Gen5 appears, and the RAID path moves to 24 Gb tri-mode.

What it means. The step to specify when the storage path matters. Tri-mode means one controller drives SAS, SATA and NVMe, which simplifies a mixed shelf considerably.

Figures above are from the specification sheets of:
M8

C240 M8

Processor
2 sockets, Intel Xeon 6700P or 6500P
Memory
32 DDR5 slots, up to 6400 MT/s, MRDIMM up to 8000 MT/s, up to 8 TB
Storage & I/O
Up to 28 SFF SAS/SATA/U.3 NVMe, up to 36 E3.S NVMe, or 16 LFF plus 4 rear SFF; dual M.2 boot with hardware RAID; up to 8 PCIe Gen5 slots

What changed. Xeon 6, MRDIMM support, E3.S bays and PCIe Gen5 throughout.

What it means. The current machine, and the one to buy when the hardware has to stay supportable for years rather than months.

Figures above are from the specification sheets of:

The M5 generation is missing from this table because the C240 M5 is not something we currently list — the M5 units we hold are blades, such as the B480 M5. We can source C-series M5 and will quote it with its own specification sheet.

Which one for which job

A rack server you can run like any other

C220 for 1U, C240 for 2U, C225 and C245 for the AMD equivalents. These do not require fabric interconnects to be useful, which makes them the straightforward entry into the line.

Filling an existing 5108 blade chassis

B-series blades of the generation that chassis supports — B200 M6 and B480 M5 are the units we hold. Adding to a working chassis is nearly always cheaper than moving platform, and it is the case for buying a discontinued blade deliberately.

A new modular deployment

X9508 chassis with X210c, X215c or X410c compute nodes, and X440p or X580p PCIe nodes where accelerators are needed. This is a chassis decision first and a node decision second — the two are bought together.

Storage-dense UCS

S3260. It is the storage server of the line and behaves differently from the C-series in both capacity and service model. Send the capacity target and we size it.

Cisco UCS models we list

37 models

Rack Servers22

Blade Servers12

Servers2

NAS & Storage1

Questions we get about Cisco UCS

No. The X-Series is a new chassis generation — X9508 — and its compute nodes do not fit the 5108. Moving from B-series to X-Series is a chassis and fabric change, not a sled swap, which is why extending a working 5108 with B-series blades is often the better economics even though the blades are older.

Not to run. They can be deployed and managed standalone like any other rack server. Fabric interconnects and the UCS management model are what you add when you want the whole estate under one policy layer — a decision about operations rather than about the hardware.

Yes. Cisco publishes end-of-sale notices naming the affected part numbers, and where a model we list is covered by one we link the notice rather than assert it ourselves. The parts stay sourceable long after the announcement — which is usually the point at which someone needs one.

Enterprise hardware reprices daily, and no two builds of the same model cost the same — memory, drives and the controller move the number more than the chassis does. A sticker would be wrong by the time you read it. Send the model and the configuration and you get today's rate, usually inside a business day, held in the contract.

A Cisco UCS model that is not listed here?The catalogue shows what we hold, not the limit of what we source. Send the model, the generation or a full parts list and you get a price and a lead time inside 48 hours.

Send the model

Other lines

Every model · new & refurbished

Same 1-yr warranty, same QC