Thirty-two memory slots across two AMD EPYC sockets is what the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus brings to a 2U chassis, and it reaches 8.0 TB with load-reduced modules. Four front ends are offered, from eight large-form-factor bays to a twenty-four-bay small chassis totalling thirty-eight drives. Storage separates it.
It separates it from the single-socket AMD models, which cap at twenty-six drives, and from its own successor, which caps at thirty-six. That two-drive difference sounds trivial and is not, because it comes from a change in the rear cage that also changes which drive carriers fit. Both are sold under names two characters apart.
DL385 Gen10 Plus chassis options and the riser they consume
Four chassis types are documented: an eight-bay small-form-factor chassis with an optional Universal Media Bay and further small-format or NVMe options, a twenty-four-bay small-form-factor chassis reaching thirty-eight drives with an eight-bay mid tray and a six-bay rear option, an eight-bay large-form-factor chassis with a Universal Media Bay, and a twelve-bay large-form-factor chassis reaching twenty drives with a four-bay mid-plane and a four-bay rear option.
| Chassis | Front Bays | Mid and rear options | Reaches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 SFF | 8 SFF | Universal Media Bay, further SFF or NVMe bay options | Extendable within the small-format front end |
| 24 SFF | 24 SFF | 8 SFF mid tray, 6 SFF rear | 38 SFF |
| 8 LFF | 8 LFF | Universal Media Bay standard, SFF or NVMe options | 8 LFF plus rear options |
| 12 LFF | 12 LFF | 4 LFF mid-plane, 4 LFF rear | 20 LFF |
Three placement rules decide real builds. The four-bay large-format rear drive box consumes the space the primary and secondary risers would use, so drives and cards compete directly. The eight-bay and twelve-bay large-format chassis also support a two-bay small-format rear box, which leaves room to attach a secondary or tertiary riser instead. And the Universal Media Bay P14609-B21 is not available with any large-format chassis or with the twenty-four-bay front end, and can only be populated in Box 1. The eight-drive NVMe option P14578-B21 is small-format only and replaces Box 1, 2 or 3 rather than adding to them.
Processors, memory and power on the DL385 Gen10 Plus
The DL385 Gen10 Plus takes two AMD EPYC 7002 processors and carries 32 DIMM slots - sixteen per processor, eight channels per processor, two modules per channel - reaching 8.0 TB with thirty-two 256 GB load-reduced modules at 3200 MT/s. HPE states the population trade directly: modules rated at 3200 MT/s run at that rate with one module per channel and drop to 2933 MT/s with two.
| Attribute | DL385 Gen10 Plus |
|---|---|
| Form-Factor | 2U rack |
| Sockets | 2 |
| Processor platform | AMD EPYC 7002 |
| Maximum Cores | 64, at the EPYC 7702 |
| DIMM Slots | 32, sixteen per processor, eight channels, two per channel |
| Maximum memory | 8.0 TB load-reduced at 3200 MT/s at one module per channel |
| Front Bays | 8 or 24 SFF, or 8 or 12 LFF |
| Maximum drives | 38 SFF, or 20 LFF |
| Storage Controllers | HPE Smart Array modular, plug-in and external-lane families |
| Lifecycle status | RETIRED; QuickSpecs a00073549enw version 31, 18 March 2024 |
Twelve processor kits are listed, and each appears in two forms - a factory-install kit ending L21 and a field kit ending B21. The ceiling is the EPYC 7702 at 64 cores, 2.0 GHz and 200 W, as P17546-L21 or P17546-B21; below it sit the 7542 at 32 cores and 2.9 GHz, the 7402 at 24 cores, the 7302 and 7282 at sixteen cores, and the high-frequency 7F32 at eight cores and 3.7 GHz. Six Flex Slot power supplies are offered from 500 W Platinum 865408-B21 to 1600 W Platinum 830272-B21, the 1600 W part is high-line only at 200 to 240 VAC, and mixing two different supplies is not allowed.
Storage, risers and accelerators on the DL385 Gen10 Plus
Storage controllers on this platform are the Smart Array generation rather than the Tri-Mode one. The modular options are the no-cache E208i-a 804326-B21, the 2 GB P408i-a 804331-B21 and the 4 GB P816i-a 804338-B21 with its SmartCache licence; plug-in options are the P408i-p 830824-B21, the external-lane P408e-p 804405-B21 and E208e-p 804398-B21, and the E208i-p 804394-B21. Boot is the NS204i-p P12965-B21 or a 32 GB microSD RAID 1 USB drive P21868-B21.
Risers are the widest part of the platform's parts list. The primary riser gives slot one eight electrical lanes in a sixteen-lane connector, slot two a full sixteen and slot three eight in a sixteen-lane connector, all from the first processor; alternative primary risers P14592-B21 and P14599-B21 change those widths, and P14600-B21 adds a sixteen-lane slot one to the slot two and three riser. Secondary and tertiary risers P14587-B21, P14588-B21, P14589-B21, P14590-B21 and P14581-B21 extend it further, and two NEBS-compliant risers exist for telecommunications environments. Accelerators listed in the QuickSpecs are the NVIDIA T4 16 GB R0W29C and two Xilinx Alveo cards, the U50 R4B02C and the U250 R4B03C; our lineup census additionally records A100 40 GB support with double-wide and boot-device constraints. Every accelerator build needs the Maximum Performance Fan Kit P14608-B21 and the High Performance Heat Sink Kit P14610-B21.
Where the DL385 Gen10 Plus sits in the ProLiant lifecycle
The DL385 Gen10 Plus is marked RETIRED in HPE's QuickSpecs banner, meaning the base products are no longer available for sale from HPE. The document identifier is a00073549enw, first published on 2 December 2019 and last revised at version 31 on 18 March 2024, with the first-published date verified from the document's own summary-of-changes history.
It shares that first-published date with the DL325 Gen10 Plus, and the two were the first AMD servers in the Gen10 Plus line. HPE publishes no support-end date for this platform on any public surface, so none appears here, and any listing quoting one should be asked which HPE notice it comes from.
DL385 Gen10 Plus vs DL385 Gen10 Plus v2
The two DL385 Gen10 Plus generations are dual-socket 2U AMD servers with thirty-two memory slots each and four identically named front ends, and they diverge in three places: processor generation, drive carrier type and maximum drive count. All three are invisible in a model name.
| Attribute | DL385 Gen10 Plus | DL385 Gen10 Plus v2 |
|---|---|---|
| Processor platform | AMD EPYC 7002 | AMD EPYC 7003, plus selected 7002 kits |
| Processor kits listed | 12 | 23 |
| DIMM Slots | 32, sixteen per processor | 32, sixteen per processor |
| Maximum memory | 8.0 TB load-reduced | 8.0 TB load-reduced |
| Drive carriers | Smart Carrier drive cages | Basic Carrier drive cages |
| Rear bays on the 24 SFF chassis | 6 SFF | 4 SFF |
| Maximum small-format drives | 38 | 36 |
| Lifecycle | RETIRED, doc a00073549enw v31 | RETIRED, doc a50002560enw v30 |
The carrier row is the one that costs money. HPE states outright that the later model uses Basic Carrier drive cages and not the Smart Carrier cages this platform uses, so drives and caddies do not move freely between the two even though the chassis names match. The thirty-eight against thirty-six difference follows from the same change, because the twenty-four-bay chassis loses two rear bays. Memory is identical on both at 8.0 TB, so a refresh between them is a processor and carrier decision rather than a capacity one.
Choosing within the Gen10 Plus ProLiant line
| Model | Form-Factor | Sockets | Processor platform | Maximum drives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL385 Gen10 Plus | 2U rack | 2 | AMD EPYC 7002 | 38 SFF |
| DL385 Gen10 Plus v2 | 2U rack | 2 | AMD EPYC 7003 | 36 SFF |
| DL345 Gen10 Plus | 2U rack | 1 | AMD EPYC 7003 | 26 SFF |
| DL325 Gen10 Plus | 1U rack | 1 | AMD EPYC 7002 | 24 SFF |
The DL385 Gen10 Plus is the top of the AMD Gen10 Plus line on both drive count and memory slots, and the only reason to look below it is per-socket software licensing. On the Intel side of the same line, the live comparisons in our catalogue a generation below are the 2U DL380 Gen10 and the 1U DL360 Gen10.
Buying a refurbished DL385 Gen10 Plus
Three things settle a quote on this platform. The version, because the successor uses a different drive carrier and caddies do not transfer. The rear cage, because the four-bay large-format rear box consumes the primary and secondary riser space and a build wanting both drives and cards has to choose. And the riser set, because this platform has one of the widest riser parts lists in the ProLiant line and a chassis supplied with the wrong one silently loses slots.
Out-of-band management is HPE Integrated Lights-Out, and its advanced tier is licensed per server against an order rather than travelling with second-hand hardware, so it belongs on the quote as a line item. Enterasource builds each DL385 Gen10 Plus to the specification ordered, testing on receipt, then disassembling, cleaning, inventorying, picking, assembling, configuring and testing again on the bench. Whole systems including this server carry the 2-year Enterasource warranty, and shipping is free to the lower 48 states. Browse the HPE ProLiant server range, or the Dell PowerEdge range for the dual-socket AMD alternatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus specifications?
Two sockets for AMD EPYC 7002 processors to 64 cores each, 32 DDR4 DIMM slots at sixteen per processor across eight channels, a maximum of 8.0 TB with load-reduced modules at 3200 MT/s, four chassis options covering eight and twenty-four small-format bays and eight and twelve large-format bays, a ceiling of thirty-eight small-format drives, and Flex Slot power supplies from 500 W to 1600 W.
How many drives does a DL385 Gen10 Plus hold?
Thirty-eight small-format drives at most, from a twenty-four-bay front end plus an eight-bay mid tray and a six-bay rear option. The large-format path reaches twenty drives, from twelve front bays plus a four-bay mid-plane and a four-bay rear option. The four-bay large-format rear box consumes the space the primary and secondary risers would otherwise use.
How much memory does the DL385 Gen10 Plus support?
Up to 8.0 TB, as thirty-two 256 GB load-reduced modules at 3200 MT/s. The platform runs sixteen slots per processor across eight channels at two modules per channel, so a single-processor configuration halves the slot count. HPE states that modules rated at 3200 MT/s hold that rate at one module per channel and drop to 2933 MT/s when the second is populated.
What is the difference between the DL385 Gen10 Plus and the v2?
Processor generation, drive carriers and two drive bays. The v2 uses AMD EPYC 7003 processors with twenty-three kits listed against twelve, and Basic Carrier drive cages rather than the Smart Carrier cages used here, so caddies do not transfer between them. Its twenty-four-bay chassis carries four rear bays rather than six, giving a ceiling of thirty-six drives against thirty-eight.
Where do I find the DL385 Gen10 Plus QuickSpecs, and is the platform still sold?
The document identifier is a00073549enw, first published on 2 December 2019 and last revised at version 31 on 18 March 2024. HPE marks its banner as retired, meaning the base products are no longer available for sale from HPE. The identifier is also the fastest way to confirm which of the two DL385 Gen10 Plus generations a listing describes.
