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

Storage options

Storage choices are equally enticing as this 2U chassis can handle up to 12 hard disks. Our entry-level system has 4 cold-swap drive bays which can be upgraded to a maximum of 8 with HP's enablement kit.

RAID starts with the embedded Dynamic Smart Array B140i controller which provides dual 4-port SATA connectors on the motherboard. We could create stripes, mirrors plus RAID5 arrays and manage them easily using HP's Smart Storage Administrator utility.

HP offers configure-to-order (CTO) models if you want 8 or 12 hot-swap drive bays and its SmartDrive carriers where each provides an integral array of hard disk status LEDs. There's also a big choice of SATA and 12Gbps SAS Smart Array controllers but bear in mind you can't upgrade from 8 bays to 12 bays and must order the higher capacity model at the outset.

HP offers a good range of RAID controller options and all can be managed from the Smart Storage Administrator