The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10+ is the current-generation HPE 2U platform — a meaningful step forward from the Gen10 in several areas that matter for infrastructure built to run into the late 2020s. If the DL380 Gen10 is the mature workhorse, the Gen10+ is the investment in platform longevity. For procurement teams evaluating whether to buy Gen10 or Gen10+, this page explains exactly what changes and when the premium is justified.

Gen10+ vs. Gen10 — what actually improves:

• Intel Xeon Scalable 3rd Gen (Ice Lake, 2021): Up to 40 cores per CPU (vs. 28 on Gen10 Cascade Lake), hardware-level security mitigations, improved IPC, better memory speed support. Total dual-socket: up to 80 cores / 160 threads.
• PCIe Gen4: Double the bandwidth of PCIe Gen3 on Gen10. Meaningful for NVMe storage (Gen4 NVMe saturates 7+ GB/s vs. ~3.5 GB/s for Gen3), GPU workloads, and high-bandwidth interconnects.
• 32 DDR4 DIMM slots: Up from 24 on Gen10. More slots enables higher total memory capacity with standard RDIMM sizes rather than requiring LRDIMMs to reach high capacities.
• Native NVMe backplane support: Gen10+ introduced native front-bay NVMe on select configurations — no PCIe card workaround required for NVMe-primary storage architectures.
• vSAN ESA support: vSAN 8.x Express Storage Architecture (ESA) is supported on Gen10+ with NVMe — not available on Gen10. For VMware shops planning ESA migration, Gen10+ is the minimum hardware requirement.
• Extended lifecycle: Gen10+ will remain in HPE's support window longer than Gen10. For infrastructure with 5–7 year planned lifespans, the Gen10+ provides more runway before end-of-support events.

When Gen10 is still the right call: If you're building infrastructure with a 2–4 year planned lifecycle, PCIe Gen4 isn't a requirement for your workload, vSAN OSA on vSphere 7.x is your VMware target, and the Gen10+ price premium exceeds your budget tolerance — the Gen10 is a completely legitimate choice. We'll quote both side-by-side so you can make the decision with full information.

For HPE platform vocabulary (iLO 5, Smart Array, FlexLOM, FBWC) see the DL380 Gen10 8-Bay page — all of it carries forward to Gen10+. This page covers what changes in Gen10+.

Processors — Ice Lake Xeon Scalable (3rd Gen)

Dual Intel Xeon Scalable 3rd Generation (Ice Lake, 2021). Up to 40 cores per CPU — the Gold 6338 (32 cores, 2.0 GHz, 205W) and Platinum 8380 (40 cores, 2.3 GHz, 270W) represent the high-end configurations. For balanced deployments, the Gold 6336Y (24 cores, 2.4 GHz, 185W) or Gold 6326 (16 cores, 2.9 GHz, 185W) are common mid-range choices providing strong per-core frequency alongside meaningful core counts.

Ice Lake brings meaningful IPC improvement over Cascade Lake — approximately 15–20% in typical enterprise workloads. For workloads that are CPU-bound, this translates to more VMs per host, faster database query execution, and better application response times with the same core count as Gen10.

High-TDP awareness on Ice Lake: Many Ice Lake Gold/Platinum SKUs carry 185–270W TDP — significantly higher than equivalent Cascade Lake SKUs. Heatsink and airflow configuration is critical. We validate thermal configurations for all Gen10+ builds before quoting.

Memory — 32 DIMM Slots

32 DDR4 DIMM slots — 16 per CPU, eight memory channels per socket (vs. six on Gen10). The additional channels and slots provide meaningful advantages:

• At 32 DIMMs, maximum DDR4 RDIMM capacity reaches ~4 TB without requiring LRDIMMs — 128 GB RDIMMs × 32 = 4 TB. Gen10 required LRDIMMs to reach comparable densities.
• Eight memory channels per socket (vs. six on Gen10) means more aggregate bandwidth at full population — meaningful for memory-bandwidth-intensive workloads.
• DDR4 speed at 1 DPC on Ice Lake: up to 3200 MT/s on supported SKUs. At 2 DPC: typically 2933–3200 MT/s depending on specific CPU — higher than Gen10's 2666 MT/s ceiling at 2 DPC.

Maximum memory: up to 8 TB with 256 GB LRDIMMs across all 32 slots — the highest memory capacity available in a Gen10+ 2U DL380 configuration.

Storage — 8 SFF Bays with PCIe Gen4 NVMe

Eight 2.5" hot-swap bays. The Gen10+ introduces native NVMe backplane support on configured chassis — NVMe drives connect directly to the PCIe Gen4 fabric for full Gen4 bandwidth. This is a meaningful change from Gen10 where NVMe required PCIe add-in cards. Confirm NVMe backplane configuration at quote time — not all DL380 Gen10+ 8-Bay configurations ship with the NVMe-capable backplane by default.

• PCIe Gen4 NVMe (where backplane configured): Gen4 NVMe SSDs deliver up to 7 GB/s sequential read — approximately 2× the bandwidth ceiling of Gen3 NVMe on Gen10. For NVMe-primary storage architectures, the Gen10+ is the platform.
• SAS/SATA drives: Standard SAS/SATA drives continue to work on the Gen10+ backplane — the platform is backwards-compatible with existing drive inventory.

M.2 boot via enablement kit — recommended to keep all 8 bays for data.

Smart Array Controllers

Same controller family as Gen10 but updated for Gen10+ integration:

• Smart Array P408i-o (2 GB FBWC): Standard production RAID controller for Gen10+ configurations. Updated model designation for Gen10+ compatibility.
• Smart Array P816i-a (4 GB FBWC): Top-tier write-cache RAID option for Gen10+ production storage.
• Smart Array E208i-a (HBA mode): Required for vSAN ESA configurations — direct drive pass-through to vSAN kernel management.

vSAN ESA — The Gen10+ Advantage

VMware vSAN 8.x Express Storage Architecture (ESA) is the current-generation vSAN storage model. ESA requires: 14th gen or newer hardware (Gen10+ qualifies), NVMe storage (not SAS/SATA), and vSphere 8.x. ESA eliminates the traditional cache/capacity disk group model — all NVMe drives participate in a unified storage pool with significantly better performance and simpler management than OSA.

If your VMware roadmap targets vSAN ESA, Gen10+ with NVMe is the minimum hardware requirement. Gen10 is OSA-only. We help customers evaluate ESA readiness as part of every vSAN Gen10+ quote.

Power Supplies

Ice Lake TDPs are higher than equivalent Cascade Lake — Gen10+ requires larger PSU configurations for fully-loaded builds. Standard recommendations:

• 2x 800W Flex Slot Platinum: For moderate TDP CPU configurations (≤185W per socket) with standard memory and SFF SSD drives.
• 2x 1600W Flex Slot Titanium: Required for high-TDP Ice Lake configurations (185W+ per socket), GPU installations, or fully-loaded NVMe configurations. Our standard recommendation for Gen10+ production deployments.

Management — iLO 5

Same iLO 5 as Gen10 — iLO 5 Advanced license required for production (remote KVM, Active Health System, virtual media). Gen10+ adds iLO 5 server security improvements including enhanced Secure Boot and additional firmware integrity features. TPM 2.0 included by default on Gen10+ configurations.

Our Assessment

The DL380 Gen10+ 8-Bay is the right platform when: your infrastructure lifecycle extends beyond 2028, vSAN ESA is in your VMware roadmap, PCIe Gen4 NVMe bandwidth is a requirement, or Ice Lake's core count (up to 40 per socket) justifies the premium over Gen10 Cascade Lake (up to 28 per socket). For HPE shops building production infrastructure today that needs to be relevant through 2030, this is the platform we recommend. For shorter lifecycles or workloads that don't leverage Gen4/ESA/Ice Lake advantages, the Gen10 delivers better ROI.

Where to look instead:

• Gen10 ROI more important than Gen10+ features? → DL380 Gen10 8-Bay
• Need more SFF bays? → DL380 Gen10+ 16-Bay or DL380 Gen10+ 24-Bay
• Need LFF drives? → DL380 Gen10+ 12-Bay 3.5"
• Need 1U Gen10+? → DL360 Gen10+ 8-Bay

Workload Fit

Ready to Configure?

Tell us your workload, vSAN architecture target (OSA or ESA), memory requirements, NVMe vs. SAS/SATA preference, and quantity. We'll return formal pricing alongside a Gen10 comparison so you can evaluate the generational premium against your lifecycle and workload requirements. Volume pricing at 5 units and above.