HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 2U rack server E5-2643v3 3.4GHz 6-core 4GB DDR4 2x 1TB SAS H240ar

Rack server for dense compute

The HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 occupies 2U and fits a single Intel Xeon E5-2643v3 running at 3.4GHz with six cores. Four gigabytes of DDR4 ECC registered memory are installed across 24 DIMM slots, leaving room for expansion up to the platform maximum. Two 1TB 7.2K SAS drives connect through a Smart HBA H240ar controller that supports RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60. Dual 500W hot-swap power supplies provide redundancy for continuous operation.

Upgrade path from limited memory or single drive

The base 4GB configuration suits lightweight services but will constrain virtualisation or database workloads; adding DDR4 modules in matched sets unlocks the 24-slot capacity. The H240ar handles both 12Gb SAS and 6Gb SATA, so faster SAS SSDs or larger SATA drives can replace the spinning disks without changing the controller. A second Xeon v3 or v4 processor can be added later to double core count and memory channels when demand grows.

Limits of the Gen9 platform

Memory speed tops out at 2400MT/s and actual frequency depends on the installed processor, so faster modules will downclock. The eight SFF bays accept 2.5-inch SAS or SATA devices only; NVMe options require a specific bay and are not supported by the H240ar. The Matrox G200eH2 graphics engine provides basic console output but no compute acceleration. Maximum theoretical memory capacity reaches 3TB with a dual-processor layout and 64GB DIMMs.