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

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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.