Two half-height media bays are the giveaway that the HPE ProLiant ML30 Gen10 Plus is built for a room rather than a rack. Every one of the three chassis carries a pair of them, sized for an optional internally mounted slim-line optical drive, an RDX removable cartridge unit or an LTO tape drive. Backup lives inside the server here.
That single design choice explains the rest of the platform. A tower sitting in an office, a clinic or a branch comms cupboard is often the only server on site, which means the backup device, the optical drive and the drive-service model all have to live in the same box. The compute underneath is deliberately modest: one Intel Xeon E socket and four unbuffered memory slots.
ML30 Gen10 Plus chassis options: three front ends, and two of them are the same size
Three chassis types are documented for the ML30 Gen10 Plus - an eight-bay small-form-factor hot-plug chassis, a four-bay large-form-factor hot-plug chassis, and a four-bay large-form-factor non-hot-plug chassis - and all three carry two half-height 5.25-inch media bays. The two large-format options hold the same four drives and differ only in whether a failed drive can be replaced with the server running.
That difference is the one worth thinking about on a tower, because a tower is usually the only server on its site. A non-hot-plug chassis means a drive replacement is an outage for everything the site runs. The eight-bay small-format chassis doubles the drive count and keeps hot-plug service, and it is the configuration most virtualization or file-server builds should start from. No drives ship standard on any of the three.
Processors, memory and power on the ML30 Gen10 Plus
The ML30 Gen10 Plus takes one Intel Xeon E-2300 processor or an Intel Pentium G6405, and carries four unbuffered DIMM slots across two channels at two modules per channel, to a maximum of 128 GB at 3200 MT/s. That ceiling is fixed by the memory type rather than by the chassis, so no configuration of this server exceeds it.
| Attribute | ML30 Gen10 Plus |
|---|---|
| Form-Factor | Tower |
| Sockets | 1 |
| Processor platform | Intel Xeon E-2300, or Intel Pentium G6405 |
| Maximum Cores | 8, at the Xeon E-2388G and E-2378G |
| DIMM Slots | 4, two channels, two modules per channel |
| Maximum memory | 128 GB unbuffered with ECC, at 3200 MT/s |
| Front Bays | 8 SFF hot-plug, 4 LFF hot-plug, or 4 LFF non-hot-plug |
| Media bays | Two half-height 5.25-inch on every chassis |
| PCIe slots | 4; slot 1 PCIe 4.0 at sixteen lanes, slots 2 to 4 PCIe 3.0 at four lanes |
| Lifecycle status | RETIRED; QuickSpecs a50002590enw version 22, 3 September 2024 |
Eleven processor kits are offered, the same list the rack sibling carries: the eight-core Xeon E-2388G P45266-B21 at 3.2 GHz and 95 W and E-2378G P45262-B21 at 2.8 GHz and 80 W at the top, the four-core E-2374G P45258-B21 at 3.7 GHz as the highest-clocked, and the Pentium G6405 P45390-B21 at 4.1 GHz and 58 W at the floor. Power starts with a 350 W non-redundant supply P45212-B21 as the standard fitment, and two Flex Slot supplies - 500 W Platinum 865408-B21 or 800 W Titanium 865438-B21 - give one-plus-one redundancy when a pair is fitted. Mixing two different supplies is not allowed.
Storage and expansion on the ML30 Gen10 Plus, and one embedded controller limit worth knowing
Four PCIe slots are documented, and only one of them is fast. Slot one is PCIe 4.0 at sixteen electrical lanes and runs from the processor; slots two, three and four are PCIe 3.0 at four electrical lanes and run from the chipset. A storage controller and a network adapter can both be fitted, but only one card gets full bandwidth, which is the trade a tower makes for its slot count.
The embedded controller is Intel Virtual RAID on CPU SATA at RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, and it carries three restrictions HPE states outright. It cannot be factory-ordered or factory-configured, because it has to be enabled in platform configuration by the customer. It cannot build a RAID volume across different drive form-factors, so a small-format drive and an M.2 module cannot be mirrored together. And it supports Windows Server and Linux but does not support VMware. A virtualization build on this platform therefore needs a hardware controller - the Smart Array P408i-p 830824-B21 or E208i-p 804394-B21, or the Tri-Mode MR216i-p P26324-B21 or MR416i-p P06367-B21 - and the same is true for a Proxmox Virtual Environment build, which Enterasource sells outright as an authorized reseller alongside the hardware.
Where the ML30 Gen10 Plus sits in the ProLiant lifecycle
The ML30 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 a50002590enw, first published on 7 March 2022 and last revised at version 22 on 3 September 2024, with the first-published date verified from the document's own summary-of-changes history.
Twenty-two revisions across two and a half years places this platform alongside its rack sibling in maintenance terms, both frozen in September 2024. HPE publishes no support-end date for the platform on any public surface, so none appears on this page.
ML30 Gen10 Plus vs DL20 Gen10 Plus: identical compute, different service model
The ML30 Gen10 Plus and the DL20 Gen10 Plus share a processor list and a memory architecture exactly, so the comparison between them is about drives, slots and where the machine physically sits. The tower wins on both counts a small site cares about, and loses the one a data centre cares about.
| Attribute | ML30 Gen10 Plus | DL20 Gen10 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Form-Factor | Tower | 1U rack |
| Front Bays | 8 SFF hot-plug, or 4 LFF in hot-plug and non-hot-plug forms | 4 SFF plus 2, or 2 LFF in hot-plug and non-hot-plug forms |
| Media bays | Two half-height 5.25-inch on every chassis | Optical drive by enablement kit |
| PCIe slots | 4; one at sixteen lanes, three at four lanes | 2, both at eight lanes |
| Standard power supply | 350 W non-redundant; 1+1 with two Flex Slot supplies | 290 W Platinum non-redundant |
| DIMM Slots | 4 unbuffered, 128 GB maximum | 4 unbuffered, 128 GB maximum |
| QuickSpecs | a50002590enw v22, 3 September 2024 | a50002583enw v24, 16 September 2024 |
The media-bay row is the one that decides most purchases. A site running tape backup inside the server has exactly one option here, because the rack model offers an optical drive by kit and nothing wider. The eight-bay small-format tower chassis also holds twice the drives of any DL20 configuration, which matters more than the shared processor list.
Choosing within the Gen10 Plus ProLiant line
| Model | Form-Factor | Sockets | DIMM Slots | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ML30 Gen10 Plus | Tower | 1 | 4 unbuffered | Offices and sites with no rack |
| DL20 Gen10 Plus | 1U rack | 1 | 4 unbuffered | Entry rack workloads |
| DL110 Gen10 Plus | 1U short-depth | 1 | 8 registered | Telecommunications cabinets |
| DL360 Gen10 Plus | 1U rack | 2 | 32 registered | Density per rack unit |
| DL380 Gen10 Plus | 2U rack | 2 | 32 registered | Expansion and drive count |
The ML30 Gen10 Plus is the only tower in the Gen10 Plus line, so within the line there is no like-for-like alternative to compare it against. The step up in our catalogue is the two-socket ML350 Gen10, a tower with 24 registered memory slots and an internal tape bay, which is where a site outgrowing the 128 GB ceiling goes next. If the site gains a rack instead, the 2U DL380 Gen10 is the equivalent step on the rack side.
Buying a refurbished ML30 Gen10 Plus
Three specifics belong on the quote. The chassis, because the two large-format variants are visually identical and only one lets a failed drive be replaced with the server running. The memory, because unbuffered modules with error correction cannot be substituted with the registered modules used elsewhere in the ProLiant line. And the media bay contents, because a tower bought for tape backup is only useful if the tape drive is part of the order.
Out-of-band management is HPE Integrated Lights-Out, and its advanced tier is licensed per server against an order rather than travelling with the chassis, so it belongs on the quote as a line item. Enterasource builds each ML30 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 tower alternatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the HPE ProLiant ML30 Gen10 Plus specifications?
One socket for an Intel Xeon E-2300 processor or an Intel Pentium G6405, four unbuffered DIMM slots across two channels at two modules per channel to a maximum of 128 GB at 3200 MT/s, three chassis options covering eight small-format hot-plug bays or four large-format bays in hot-plug and non-hot-plug forms, two half-height media bays on every chassis, and four PCIe slots.
What chassis options does the ML30 Gen10 Plus come in?
Three: an eight-bay small-form-factor hot-plug chassis, a four-bay large-form-factor hot-plug chassis, and a four-bay large-form-factor non-hot-plug chassis. All three carry two half-height 5.25-inch media bays for an optional internal optical drive, an RDX removable cartridge unit or an LTO tape drive, which is the feature that distinguishes this platform from its rack sibling.
How much memory does the ML30 Gen10 Plus support?
Up to 128 GB, as four 32 GB unbuffered modules with error correction at 3200 MT/s. The platform runs two channels at two modules per channel, and that ceiling is set by the memory type rather than by the chassis, so no configuration of this server exceeds it. Registered and load-reduced modules are not used on this platform at all.
Does the ML30 Gen10 Plus support VMware with its embedded RAID?
No. HPE states that the embedded Intel Virtual RAID on CPU SATA path supports Windows Server and Linux but does not support VMware, and that it cannot be factory-ordered because it must be enabled in platform configuration by the customer. A build intended for a hypervisor needs a hardware controller such as the Smart Array P408i-p or a Tri-Mode MR series card instead.
Where do I find the ML30 Gen10 Plus QuickSpecs, and is the platform still sold?
The document identifier is a50002590enw, first published on 7 March 2022 and last revised at version 22 on 3 September 2024. HPE marks its banner as retired, meaning the base products are no longer available for sale from HPE. Quoting that identifier by name is the reliable way to be given the correct revision rather than a mirrored copy of an older one.
