HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 2U Rackmount Server

The Hewlett Packard Enterprise ProLiant DL380 Gen10 is a two-socket 2U rack server with 24 DIMM slots and four factory chassis. Chassis choice fixes the front bay count and the drive form-factor, and on this platform it also decides which HPE Smart Array controller the server is built around. Memory tops out at 3.0 TB with load-reduced DIMMs and 1.54 TB with registered DIMMs, both at 2933 MT/s.

This is the platform an enormous number of production estates are built on, which is the whole argument for buying one on the secondary market rather than replacing it. Parts are plentiful, the configuration rules are settled, and a DL380 Gen10 bought to match an existing rack inherits the firmware baseline, the management tooling and the spares pool that estate already has.

DL380 Gen10 chassis options and what each one commits you to

Four front-end chassis exist for the DL380 Gen10 and each one is a separate configuration in our catalogue with its own HPE part number. HPE documents the four in the Chassis Types section of a00008180enw: an 8 SFF chassis with an optional Universal Media Bay and optional additional SFF or NVMe bay options; a 24 SFF chassis with an additional 6 SFF rear option reaching 30 SFF in total; an 8 LFF chassis with a Universal Media Bay; and a 12 LFF chassis with an optional 4 LFF mid-plane and an optional 3 LFF plus 2 SFF rear option, reaching 19 LFF plus 2 SFF.

Chassis	Front bays	Rear and mid options	Reaches	Drive form-factor
8 SFF	8 x 2.5-inch	Universal Media Bay; additional SFF or NVMe bay options	Expandable within the SFF front end	Small form-factor
24 SFF	24 x 2.5-inch	6 SFF rear	30 SFF	Small form-factor
8 LFF	8 x 3.5-inch	Universal Media Bay	8 LFF front	Large form-factor
12 LFF	12 x 3.5-inch	4 LFF mid-plane; 3 LFF plus 2 SFF rear	19 LFF plus 2 SFF	Large form-factor with an SFF rear option

The 12 LFF chassis is the one to look at twice. With the mid-plane and the rear cage fitted it reaches nineteen 3.5-inch drives plus two 2.5-inch, which puts a single 2U server into territory that usually needs a disk shelf. In our own catalogue each of the four chassis carries its own HPE part number rather than a shared one, which is why a DL380 Gen10 has to be quoted by configuration and never by model name alone - two servers with the same nameplate can have entirely different front ends, backplanes and controller cabling.

Configuring a DL380 Gen10: the order the decisions have to be made in

The configurator on this page follows the same order the build follows, and the first decision constrains the rest. Chassis comes first, because the front end sets the drive ceiling and the controller. Processors come second, as a required CPU Socket 1 selection and an optional CPU Socket 2 selection carrying a None value for single-processor builds. Memory comes third and is a quantity rather than a menu. Drives, the storage controller, power supplies and power cords follow, and the operating environment and warranty close the build.

The memory quantity deserves a note because the ceiling is deliberate. Our configurator caps the DIMM count at twelve in steps of two, and twelve is the single-processor-safe ceiling on a platform with 24 slots at twelve per processor. Allowing 24 would let a one-processor build buy 24 DIMMs, which is an order that cannot be built. If a build needs the full 24 slots, it needs two processors, and the quote should say so explicitly.

Virtualization is the workload this chassis is most often bought for, and both major paths are available at build time. VMware ESXi remains the incumbent on a large share of DL380 Gen10 estates, and Proxmox Virtual Environment is the alternative we sell outright as an authorized reseller, with subscriptions and support available on the same order as the hardware. A 24-slot DDR4 host with a Smart Array controller and dual power supplies is a straightforward target for either, and the decision is usually about licensing rather than hardware.

Processors and memory on the DL380 Gen10

The DL380 Gen10 takes up to two Intel Xeon Scalable processors from the 1st or 2nd generation - Skylake-SP and Cascade Lake-SP - and the configurator on this page carries a CPU Socket 1 group and a CPU Socket 2 group, the second one holding a None value so a single-processor build can be quoted. Both platforms carry the same processor option depth in our configurator as the Dell 14th generation models of the same era, so cross-shopping the two does not mean giving up processor choice on either side.

Attribute	DL380 Gen10
Form-Factor	2U rack
Sockets	2
Processor platform	Intel Xeon Scalable, 1st and 2nd generation
DIMM Slots	24, twelve per processor
Memory type	DDR4 registered and load-reduced
Maximum memory	3.0 TB load-reduced, 1.54 TB registered, both at 2933 MT/s
Persistent memory	Intel Optane persistent memory supported
Front Bays	8 or 24 x 2.5-inch, or 8 or 12 x 3.5-inch, by chassis
Storage Controllers	HPE Smart Array E208i-a, P408i-a and P816i-a modular
Accelerators	Double-wide GPU riser supported
Power supplies	500 W and 800 W Platinum, 800 W Titanium, 1600 W Platinum Flex Slot
Lifecycle status	RETIRED; QuickSpecs a00008180enw version 77, 16 June 2025

Memory is the number most buyers get wrong on this platform, because the headline 3.0 TB figure only applies to load-reduced DIMMs. With registered DIMMs the ceiling is 1.54 TB, and both figures are quoted at 2933 MT/s. Twelve slots are wired to each processor, so a single-processor DL380 Gen10 has twelve usable slots and half the stated capacity no matter how many DIMMs are supplied with it. Intel Optane persistent memory is supported on the platform, which is a genuine differentiator against most 2U servers of the same age.

Smart Array controllers on the DL380 Gen10, and why the chassis picks the controller

Three HPE Smart Array modular controllers cover this generation, and they are separated by lane count and cache rather than by feature list. The E208i-a, 804326-B21, has eight internal lanes and no cache. The P408i-a, 804331-B21, has eight internal lanes and 2 GB of cache. The P816i-a, 804338-B21, has sixteen internal lanes and 4 GB of cache. Cache size is carried in each part's own product name, so the split can be confirmed from the part number alone rather than taken on trust.

Controller	Part	Internal lanes	Cache	Suits
HPE Smart Array E208i-a	804326-B21	8	None	Small SFF or LFF front ends where write cache is not needed
HPE Smart Array P408i-a	804331-B21	8	2 GB	The 8 SFF and 8 LFF front ends
HPE Smart Array P816i-a	804338-B21	16	4 GB	The 12 LFF and 24 SFF front ends

The pairing in our configurator is lane-correct rather than arbitrary: an eight-lane controller matches an eight-bay front end, and a sixteen-lane controller matches a twelve-bay or twenty-four-bay one. That is why the 8 SFF chassis is offered with the P408i-a and the 12 LFF chassis with the P816i-a. A used DL380 Gen10 that arrives with an eight-lane controller behind a twelve-bay backplane will work, but it will not deliver the bandwidth the chassis was sold for, and that mismatch is one of the more common defects in secondary-market listings.

Expansion and accelerators on the DL380 Gen10

The DL380 Gen10 supports double-wide accelerators through a dedicated GPU riser, which is the practical difference between it and the 1U DL360 Gen10 of the same generation. PCIe on this platform is Gen3, which sets the per-slot bandwidth ceiling and is the reason a Gen10 chassis is not a sensible host for a current-generation accelerator even where one physically fits. For a Gen10-era GPU workload the pairing that makes sense is a card of the same era, sized to the riser and to the power supply pair fitted.

The full riser part index, slot map and accelerator list for this generation live in QuickSpecs a00008180enw, and we publish only the figures we have verified rather than filling the gaps from memory. If a build depends on a specific riser or slot width, ask for it by part number at quote time and we will confirm it against the document before the order is placed.

Power supplies on the DL380 Gen10

Power is HPE Flexible Slot across four options on this generation: 500 W and 800 W Platinum, 800 W Titanium and 1600 W Platinum. Our configurator sells them as a pair, and it sells power cords as a matching pair, because a single-supply 2U server in a production rack is a single point of failure that a second supply removes for a modest addition to the build. Titanium is the higher efficiency grade of the two available and is the right choice where the rack is power-constrained or the estate is measured on energy draw.

Two practical points on a used purchase. Supplies should match: a mismatched pair is not a redundant pair on any HPE Flex Slot platform. And a 1600 W supply belongs to a high-line rack rather than a 120 V one, so a DL380 Gen10 pulled from a data centre and re-homed into an office comms room may need different supplies as well as different cords.

What does not transfer with a used DL380 Gen10

Hardware transfers; entitlement does not, and on an HPE ProLiant server that distinction costs more than most buyers expect. Advanced out-of-band management is a licensed tier purchased per server against an order, and there is no way to read an entitlement off a chassis, a service tag or a firmware screen. A reset does not restore one. The same is true of HPE support agreements and the firmware and driver bundles gated behind them: they attach to a contract rather than to a serial number.

Treat both as line items on the quote rather than assumptions about the box. Any listing that promises an advanced management licence transfers with a second-hand server is describing something it cannot deliver, and that is worth checking before the purchase rather than after the first time someone needs remote console access during an outage.

Where the DL380 Gen10 sits in the ProLiant lifecycle

The DL380 Gen10 is marked RETIRED in HPE's own QuickSpecs banner, meaning HPE has retired the document and declared the base products no longer available for sale. The document identifier is a00008180enw and the most recent revision recorded in our census is version 77, dated 16 June 2025. A platform HPE was still revising at version 77, years after launch, is a platform with a large continuing installed base - that is the honest reading of a document history that long, and it is the reason the aftermarket for this server is deep rather than thin.

On release date, the accurate answer is narrower than the one most pages give. HPE's earliest retained revision of a00008180enw is version 2, dated 7 August 2017, so the platform's actual launch is earlier than that date rather than on it. HPE no longer serves the version 1 document, so 7 August 2017 is a floor rather than a launch date, and anyone quoting a precise DL380 Gen10 launch day is quoting something HPE does not publish. HPE publishes no support-end date for this platform on any public surface either, so none appears here. Enterasource does not host, mirror or reproduce HPE QuickSpecs documents; the document identifier is the reference, and every figure on this page can be checked against it.

HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 vs Dell PowerEdge R740

The DL380 Gen10 and the Dell PowerEdge R740 are the same class of server from the same era: two-socket 2U rack machines on Intel Xeon Scalable 1st and 2nd generation processors with 24 DDR4 DIMM slots each. On compute they are close enough that the choice is rarely made on performance. Where they separate is storage architecture, controller family and management stack.

Attribute	HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10	Dell PowerEdge R740
Chassis height	2U	2U
Processor platform	Intel Xeon Scalable, 1st and 2nd generation	Intel Xeon Scalable, 1st and 2nd generation
DIMM Slots	24, twelve per processor	24
Stated maximum memory	3.0 TB load-reduced, 1.54 TB registered	3 TB load-reduced on our listing
Memory speed	Up to 2933 MT/s	Up to 2933 MT/s
Front chassis options	8 SFF, 24 SFF, 8 LFF, 12 LFF	SFF and LFF front ends, with the extended xd variant for higher counts
Storage Controllers	HPE Smart Array E208i-a, P408i-a, P816i-a	Dell PERC
Management	HPE Integrated Lights-Out	Dell iDRAC9

One caveat is worth carrying because our own catalogue audit found it and most comparisons repeat the marketing figure instead. The 3 TB memory maximum on the Dell side is a load-reduced DIMM figure, and we stock no load-reduced module and no 128 GB module for that platform - so the maximum actually buildable from the parts we sell is 24 x 64 GB registered DIMMs, or 1.5 TB. The same arithmetic applies to the HPE side: 3.0 TB is the load-reduced figure and 1.54 TB is the registered one. Comparing the two headline numbers without checking the DIMM type compares two things that are not the same.

Choose the DL380 Gen10 where the estate already runs HPE management tooling and Smart Array controllers, or where the 12 LFF chassis with its mid-plane and rear cage removes the need for a separate disk shelf. Choose the R740 where the estate runs iDRAC and PERC. The rest of that side of the comparison is in the Dell PowerEdge range, where the value-tier PowerEdge R730 sits a generation below and the PowerEdge R750 a generation above.

DL380 Gen10 vs DL380 Gen10 Plus vs DL380 Gen11

Three DL380 generations sit close together in the aftermarket and the difference between them is memory architecture before anything else. The Gen10 is a 24-slot DDR4 machine at 2933 MT/s; the Gen10 Plus moves to 32 slots of DDR4 at 3200 MT/s on 3rd generation Xeon Scalable; the Gen11 moves to 32 slots of DDR5 on 4th and 5th generation Xeon Scalable. Everything else - chassis names, rack height, socket count - stays recognisably the same, which is exactly why the three get confused on listings.

Attribute	DL380 Gen10	DL380 Gen10 Plus	DL380 Gen11
Processor platform	Xeon Scalable 1st and 2nd gen	Xeon Scalable 3rd gen	Xeon Scalable 4th and 5th gen
Memory	DDR4 at 2933 MT/s	DDR4 at 3200 MT/s	DDR5
DIMM Slots	24, twelve per processor	32, sixteen per processor	32, sixteen per processor
Stated maximum memory	3.0 TB load-reduced, 1.54 TB registered	8.0 TB load-reduced, 2.0 TB registered	8.0 TB registered
Front chassis options	8SFF, 24SFF, 8LFF, 12LFF	8SFF, 24SFF, 8LFF, 12LFF	8SFF, 24SFF, 8LFF, 12LFF, 12EDSFF
Lifecycle status	RETIRED, doc a00008180enw v77	RETIRED, doc a50002553enw v42	CURRENT, doc a50004307enw v46

The practical rule is that the Gen10 Plus is a memory upgrade rather than a compute one, and the Gen11 is a platform change. If a workload is memory-bound at 1.54 TB of registered DIMMs, the Gen10 Plus doubles the slot count and lifts the registered ceiling; if it needs DDR5 bandwidth or PCIe Gen5 devices, only the Gen11 delivers that. If it is neither, the Gen10 is the platform with the deepest parts pool and the largest installed base to draw spares from.

Choosing within the Gen10 ProLiant line

The DL380 Gen10 is the 2U general-purpose member of the Gen10 line, and the choice against its siblings is a choice about height and drive count rather than about processors, since the rack and tower models share the same Xeon Scalable generations and the same 24-slot DDR4 architecture.

Model	Form-Factor	Front chassis options	DIMM Slots	Where it fits
DL380 Gen10	2U rack, 2 sockets	8SFF, 24SFF, 8LFF, 12LFF	24	The general-purpose dual-socket 2U
DL360 Gen10	1U rack, 2 sockets	8SFF, 10SFF, 4LFF	24	Density per rack unit
ML350 Gen10	4U tower, 5U racked, 2 sockets	SFF, LFF and LFF non-hot-plug cages	24	Offices and sites with no rack
BL460c Gen10	Half-height blade	c-Class enclosure bays	Blade platform	Existing c-Class enclosure estates
DL380 Gen10 Plus	2U rack, 2 sockets	8SFF, 24SFF, 8LFF, 12LFF	32	The memory step up, one generation on

Every one of those shares the DL380 Gen10's management approach and its Smart Array controller family, so a mixed Gen10 estate is a single spares pool and a single firmware baseline rather than four separate ones.

Buying a refurbished DL380 Gen10

The DL380 Gen10 is the deepest secondary market in the HPE rack line, and depth is the reason to buy one. Parts are plentiful, the configuration rules have long since settled, and a server bought to match an existing rack inherits a spares pool that is already in the building. Three things are worth specifying at quote time: the chassis, because the front end is what a Gen10 is actually sold by; the controller, because lane count needs to match bay count; and the processor count, because twelve of the 24 DIMM slots are wired to the second socket.

Enterasource builds each HP ProLiant DL380 Gen10 to the specification ordered. Every unit is tested on receipt, then disassembled, cleaned, inventoried, picked, assembled, configured and tested again on the bench before it leaves the building. Whole systems including this server carry the 2-year Enterasource warranty, and shipping is free to the lower 48 states. Browse the full HPE ProLiant server range for the rest of the line.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 specifications?

Two sockets for Intel Xeon Scalable 1st or 2nd generation processors, 24 DDR4 DIMM slots at twelve per processor, a maximum of 3.0 TB with load-reduced DIMMs or 1.54 TB with registered DIMMs at 2933 MT/s, Intel Optane persistent memory support, four front chassis covering 8 SFF, 24 SFF, 8 LFF and 12 LFF, HPE Smart Array E208i-a, P408i-a or P816i-a modular controllers, double-wide accelerator support through a GPU riser, and Flex Slot power supplies from 500 W to 1600 W.

How does the DL380 Gen10 compare to the Dell PowerEdge R740?

They are the same class of machine from the same era - two-socket 2U servers on Intel Xeon Scalable 1st and 2nd generation processors with 24 DDR4 slots each and a 2933 MT/s memory ceiling on both. The differences that decide a purchase are ecosystem rather than performance: HPE Smart Array controllers and HPE management tooling against Dell PERC and iDRAC9. Both platforms carry the same processor option depth in our configurator, so the compute choice is genuinely equivalent.

What generation is the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10?

Gen10 is HPE's tenth ProLiant generation and runs Intel Xeon Scalable 1st and 2nd generation processors, which is the same silicon era as Dell's 14th generation PowerEdge line. Within HPE's own sequence it sits below the DL380 Gen10 Plus, which moves to 3rd generation Xeon Scalable with 32 DDR4 slots, and the DL380 Gen11, which moves to 4th and 5th generation Xeon Scalable with 32 DDR5 slots.

When was the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 released?

HPE's earliest retained revision of the DL380 Gen10 QuickSpecs document, a00008180enw, is version 2 dated 7 August 2017, and version 1 is no longer served. That makes 7 August 2017 a floor rather than a launch date: the platform shipped earlier than the earliest document HPE still publishes. Any source quoting a precise launch day for this server is quoting something HPE does not make available.

Where do I find the DL380 Gen10 datasheet?

The specification document for this server is the HPE QuickSpecs, document identifier a00008180enw, and the most recent revision recorded in our census is version 77 dated 16 June 2025. HPE publishes it directly, and asking for that identifier by name is the reliable way to get the current revision rather than a mirrored copy of an older one. Enterasource does not host or reproduce HPE QuickSpecs documents.

What is the difference between the DL380 Gen10 and the DL380 Gen10 Plus?

Memory architecture, primarily. The Gen10 has 24 DDR4 slots at twelve per processor with a ceiling of 3.0 TB load-reduced or 1.54 TB registered at 2933 MT/s. The Gen10 Plus has 32 DDR4 slots at sixteen per processor with a ceiling of 8.0 TB load-reduced or 2.0 TB registered at 3200 MT/s, on 3rd generation Xeon Scalable processors. Chassis names, rack height and socket count are the same on both, which is why listings confuse them.

How much memory does the DL380 Gen10 support?

Up to 3.0 TB using load-reduced DIMMs, or 1.54 TB using registered DIMMs, both at 2933 MT/s across 24 slots. Twelve slots are wired to each processor, so a single-processor build has twelve usable slots and half the stated capacity regardless of how many modules are supplied with it. Intel Optane persistent memory is also supported on this platform, which extends the addressable memory beyond the DIMM figures above.