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HPE ProLiant, generation by generation.

ProLiant is the oldest continuously named server line in the rack, and the naming still works the way it always has. DL is rack, ML is tower, BL is the blade, and the number is the class rather than the age: DL360 is the 1U workhorse, DL380 the 2U one, DL560 and DL580 the four-socket machines, DL20 and ML30 the small single-socket boxes. Age lives in the generation suffix — Gen8 through Gen12 — and a DL380 Gen9 has more in common with a DL360 Gen9 than with a DL380 Gen11.

86models listed
53refurbished
6generations compared

The DL380 is the model to read the line by. It has been the same 2U, two-socket server through five generation steps, so putting those steps side by side shows exactly what a generation is worth in this line, and where the steps are large enough to matter.

HPE also splits the generation itself: Gen10 Plus is a real platform change on top of Gen10, not a refresh badge. It is the step where PCIe Gen4 and 32 DIMM slots arrive, and it is worth pricing separately from plain Gen10.

DL380, five generation steps

6 steps

Figures are the configuration ceiling from the specification sheet we hold against each generation of the DL380. The same steps apply to the DL360 of the same generation.

Gen8

DL380 Gen8

Processor
2 sockets, Intel Xeon E5-2600, up to 8 cores per processor
Memory
24 DDR3 slots, up to 1600 MT/s, up to 768 GB RDIMM
Storage & I/O
8 SFF or 8 LFF hot-plug, optional second 8 SFF cage

What changed. The last DDR3 generation of the line.

What it means. Sourceable and cheap, and the right answer only for keeping an existing system running or holding a matching spare. Eight cores per socket is where the arithmetic stops working for consolidation.

Figures above are from the specification sheet of:
Gen9

DL380 Gen9

Processor
2 sockets, Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3/v4, up to 22 cores
Memory
24 DDR4 slots, up to 2400 MT/s, up to 3 TB LRDIMM
Storage & I/O
8/16/24 SFF or 12 LFF; Smart Array P440ar/P840; optional NVMe

What changed. DDR3 to DDR4, nearly three times the cores per socket and four times the memory ceiling.

What it means. The oldest generation still worth buying for new work rather than for continuity. A 24-SFF Gen9 is a capable backup target or file server and costs very little.

Figures above are from the specification sheet of:
Gen10

DL380 Gen10

Processor
2 sockets, 1st/2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable, up to 28 cores
Memory
24 DDR4 slots; up to 1.54 TB RDIMM, 3.0 TB LRDIMM, or 6.0 TB with persistent memory
Storage & I/O
8/16/24 SFF or 12 LFF; up to 20 NVMe; Smart Array P408i-a/P816i-a; iLO 5

What changed. Socket change to Xeon Scalable, and NVMe becomes a normal front-end option.

What it means. The volume generation on the second-hand market, and usually the best value per core in the line. If you have no specific reason to go newer, this is where to start looking.

Figures above are from the specification sheet of:
Gen10 Plus

DL380 Gen10 Plus

Processor
2 sockets, 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable, up to 40 cores
Memory
32 DDR4 slots; up to 2.0 TB RDIMM, up to 8.0 TB LRDIMM at 3200 MT/s
Storage & I/O
Up to 24 SFF front with mid and rear cages, or 12 LFF; tri-mode MR416i-a / MR216i-p / SR932i-p; PCIe Gen4

What changed. Eight more DIMM slots, PCIe Gen4 and tri-mode controllers that drive SAS, SATA and NVMe from one card.

What it means. A platform change wearing a refresh name. If a quote compares "Gen10" against "Gen10 Plus" as if the difference were cosmetic, it is not — check which one you are being offered.

Figures above are from the specification sheet of:
Gen11

DL380 Gen11

Processor
2 sockets, 4th/5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable, up to 64 cores, up to 350 W
Memory
32 DDR5 slots, up to 8 TB, up to 5600 MT/s
Storage & I/O
Up to 20 EDSFF drives, SAS/SATA/NVMe; MR408i-o / MR416i-a; PCIe Gen5; iLO 6

What changed. DDR5, PCIe Gen5 and the move to EDSFF drive bays.

What it means. Current-generation cores and the power budget for accelerators. This is the step to specify when GPUs or 100 GbE are in the plan rather than a possibility.

Figures above are from the specification sheets of:
Gen12

DL380 Gen12

Processor
2 sockets, Intel Xeon 6, up to 350 W
Memory
32 DDR5 slots, up to 8 TB, 6400 MT/s
Storage & I/O
Up to 24 SFF front plus 6 rear, or 12 LFF with mid and rear, or 36 E3.S; PCIe 5.0 plus OCP 3.0

What changed. Xeon 6, a faster memory bus, and EDSFF bays up from 20 to 36.

What it means. The current machine. Buy it where the hardware has to outlive several refresh cycles, or where a support contract has to be live for years rather than months.

Figures above are from the specification sheet of:

Which one for which job

A 1U front-line server

DL360 of the generation you settle on. It is the same platform as the DL380 in half the height, with fewer drive bays and fewer PCIe slots — pick it when the machine is compute and network rather than storage.

An office or edge server without a rack

ML30 or ML110 for a single socket, ML350 where you need two. Tower ProLiants take the same disks and the same iLO as their rack siblings, which matters when the site has no rack but the estate has one standard.

Four sockets for a licensing-heavy application

DL560 or DL580. These exist because some software is licensed per machine rather than per core, and one four-socket box is cheaper to license than two dual-socket ones. Send the licence terms and we will price both ways.

AMD instead of Intel

DL325 is single-socket EPYC, DL385 dual-socket. Same chassis family and same iLO, different core economics — worth pricing next to the Intel equivalent whenever core count rather than clock is what you are buying.

HPE ProLiant models we list

86 models

Rack Servers62

Tower Servers21

Blade Servers3

Questions we get about HPE ProLiant

Gen10 Plus is a different platform, not a trim level: 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable instead of 1st/2nd, 32 DIMM slots instead of 24, PCIe Gen4 instead of Gen3, and tri-mode storage controllers. The chassis looks the same, which is precisely why the distinction gets lost in quotes. Ask which one a listing means before comparing prices.

They still run, and parts are still sourceable — we list what we hold. HPE publishes no end-of-sale announcement for its server line naming a successor, so we mark these families end-of-sale on the basis of their age rather than on a citable vendor notice, and we say so on the page. For anything you intend to grow into, start at Gen9 or later.

The iLO chip and its basic functions come with the board. Advanced licence features are held in the vendor's licensing, not in the metal, and do not transfer just because the hardware changed hands. We say plainly what is on a unit before it ships rather than letting you find out at first boot.

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 HPE ProLiant 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

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Every model · new & refurbished

Same 1-yr warranty, same QC