Server - ProLiant ML310E

The HP ProLiant ML310e Gen 8 v2 is a relatively small but powerful tower server that continues to improve efficiency among businesses all around the world. Recommended mostly for small corporate offices and remote sites this server provides exceptional performance with convenience and reliability. In fact, this server is suited perfectly for hosting databases and small-scale applications in SMBs that do not have the capacity to hire an in-house IT team.

Product specifications

The ML 380e tower server stands at 68.9 x 18.71 x 14.5 inches and weighs in at just about 41.8lbs. It is classified as a micro ATX tower so fits perfectly into a 4U space when mounted into a rack. The power supply that comes with this version is HP 350W Multi-output power supply. Please keep in mind that it requires AC power rated at 120/230V(50/60Hz).

Processor and memory specifications

The ProLiant ML310e supports only one processor at a time (quad-core Xeon E3-1200 v3 in the base model or the quad-core Xeon E3-1270 v3 in the performance model). The latter configuration supports the processing capabilities of the Xeon 3.5GHz while the former is rated the same as the Xeon 3.1GHz. The cache memory for the quad-core Xeon processors is 8MB (1X8MB) L3 Cache.

To ensure that this server can handle multiple processes even under heavy load, HPE created four DIMM slots that can support a total of 32GB DDR3 (1600MHz) SDRAM. Please note that the RAM used on HP ProLiant ML310e gen 8 is not fully compatible with those used in previous generations.

When it comes to internal storage, HP ML310e can accommodate either four LFF or eight SFF SAS/SATA hard disk drives. These combinations include both hot/non-hot swap SFF and hot/non-hot swap LFF SATA and SAS SSD. A maximum capacity of 4TB is allocated to each slot.

Drives and ports

This server comes with one optical drive (DVD-RW), two Ethernet ports (Gigabit), one serial port, one VGA port, and one dedicated HP iLO 4 Port which facilitates swift and secure transmission of data. This translates into a world of convenience when it comes to managing the server remotely using the proprietary HP iLO Management Engine. The management engine is a standard feature on all ProLiant Gen 8 servers.

There are four USB 2.0 ports at the front two USB3.0 ports at the back. Four PCIe expansion slots are provided at the rear of the server in the following configuration:

·Slot 4 PCIe 3.0 x 16

·Slot 3 PCIe 3.0 x 8

·Slot 2 PCIe 2.0 x 8

·Slot 1 PCIe 2.0 x 4

These slots should come in handy in the event that your business requires you to scale up your communication or storage capacity.

One of the biggest selling points that HP Enterprises decided to use for this server is that it supports different operating systems. These include Microsoft Windows Server, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In case you intend to install RHEL 5.9, please note that USB 3.0 is not supported on this version of the OS.