The DL360 Gen10 and DL380 Gen10 are HPE's two mainstream ProLiant rack servers from the same generation. The difference is height: the DL360 is 1U, the DL380 is 2U. Everything that follows — drive count, expansion, cooling headroom — comes from that.
Drive configurations compared
These are the chassis configurations TekBoost lists for each platform.
| ProLiant DL360 Gen10 | ProLiant DL380 Gen10 | |
|---|---|---|
| Form factor | 1U rackmount | 2U rackmount |
| Generation | HPE Gen10 | HPE Gen10 |
| 2.5" configurations | Up to 8 SAS/SATA Up to 10 SAS/SATA |
Up to 8 SAS/SATA Up to 16 SAS/SATA Up to 24 SAS/SATA |
| 3.5" configurations | Up to 4 SAS/SATA | Up to 12 SAS/SATA |
| Maximum listed drive count | 10 | 24 |
What the difference actually means
Rack units are the real currency
In a colocation rack or a rented cabinet, U space is the thing you pay for. Two DL360s occupy the same height as one DL380 and give you two independent machines with two power supplies and two sets of fans. For workloads that scale by adding nodes — web tiers, application servers, clustered virtualisation with shared storage — that is frequently the better shape.
2U buys drives, and it is a large difference
The DL380 reaches 24 x 2.5" or 12 x 3.5" against the DL360's 10 x 2.5" or 4 x 3.5". If the design needs local capacity — a backup target, a file server, a hyperconverged node, a database with local storage — the DL360 runs out of bays long before it runs out of compute.
The 3.5" gap is the widest: 4 bays against 12. For bulk nearline storage the DL360 is not a practical option.
1U constrains what you can put inside
A 1U chassis limits card height and the physical room for cooling. Full-height expansion and larger accelerators generally need the 2U chassis. If there is any prospect of adding a card of significant size later, the 2U platform keeps that option open.
Choosing between them
Pick the DL360 Gen10 when compute density per rack unit matters and storage is somewhere else — a SAN, a NAS, or another tier entirely. Pick the DL380 Gen10 when the data lives in the box, when you want expansion headroom, or when you would rather have one larger machine than two smaller ones to administer.
What these figures describe
The table sets out the chassis configurations these platforms were built in. It does not describe the drive cage fitted to a particular unit, and drive configuration on ProLiant chassis is decided at build. Confirm the cage and controller against real stock before ordering.
Where to go next
- HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 specifications and options
- HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 specifications and options
- HPE ProLiant Gen10 server guide
- Plan drive capacity and RAID with the Storage & RAID Advisor
- Browse refurbished HPE ProLiant servers
Hardware bought from TekBoost carries our standard 3-year warranty with Next Business Day part replacement, subject to the terms, exclusions and conditions on that page. HPE support entitlements and software subscriptions are separate and are not included. To have a configuration checked against real stock, request a quote.