HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 24 SFF Xeon E5-2643 v3 3.4GHz 96GB P440 4GB FBWC

24-bay 2U rack server

The HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 fits 24 small-form-factor drive bays into a 2U chassis. A single Xeon E5-2643 v3 six-core processor at 3.4GHz and 96GB of DDR4 ECC memory are installed. The Smart Array P440 controller with 4GB FBWC manages RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60 across the bays. Dual 500W redundant power supplies keep the platform running.

SAS bandwidth and memory ceiling

The P440 controller operates at 12Gb/s and 6Gb/s SAS speeds, limiting drive throughput to those link rates. Memory tops out at 96GB across 24 DIMM slots, so no further RAM can be added without removing modules. Only two processors are supported, capping core count at 12 physical cores with hyper-threading. The Matrox G200eH2 graphics provides 16MB video memory for basic console output only.

Slide-in rails and drive caddy prep

The server mounts on standard rack rails and the 24 drive trays with screws are included, so drive installation is a simple caddy swap. A second processor kit requires a matching heatsink and the correct socket clearance, which is the most common oversight. No optical drive bay exists on the 24 SFF model, so OS deployment must use USB, PXE or the iLO remote console. The redundant power supplies are hot-swap, but both must be populated for full redundancy.