IT Pro Verdict

SMBs that want the latest E5-2600 v3 Xeons in their server will like the budget-friendly ProLiant DL80 Gen9. It may have a low starting price but features aren’t compromised and its high capacity makes it a fine choice for storage-centric apps

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent value; Support for E5-2600 v3 Xeons; High storage capacity; Good expansion; Scalable design

Reasons to avoid

-
8-bay model can’t be upgraded to 12 bays; Cold-swap cooling fans

By Dave Mitchell

Published 3 June 2015 In Reviews

Small businesses that thought rack servers sporting the latest core-heavy E5-2600 v3 Xeons were beyond their budget should think again. HP's ProLiant DL80 Gen9 delivers these and more with prices for the entry-level models sneaking in on the right side of 1,000.

As with all its Gen9 servers, HP's has taken a different approach to system design. Although not as versatile as the flagship DL380 Gen9, the DL80 Gen9 is still a highly scalable system that allows businesses to pay only for what they need now but with a view to upgrading on-demand in the future.

The system on review is the entry model of this new family and has a tempting price tag of only 989. This gets you a single 1.6GHz E5-2603 v3 CPU with 6 cores but a second socket is ready and waiting and HP offers 9 other models if you fancy more speed and cores.

Naturally, high-speed DDR4 memory is supported and HP has cut costs by reducing the number of DIMM slots to 8. The review system came with a single 4GB stick but with dual CPUs installed, it supports up to 256GB easily enough for most small businesses.

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The DL80 Gen9 supports two Xeon CPUs but DIMM slots have been reduced to eight to cut costs

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Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.