A DL380 Gen10 8SFF barebone gives you the chassis, system board, fans, backplane and iLO 5 — and nothing you need to power on. You still need at least one Xeon Scalable CPU, a matching heatsink, DDR4 RDIMMs, a power supply, drive caddies and rails. Here is the exact list, in the order it will stop you.
What a DL380 Gen10 barebone actually includes
On this platform "barebone" usually means the 2U chassis with the 8-bay 2.5-inch backplane, the system board, the fan cage, the primary PCIe riser and iLO 5. It does not mean a working server.
Two listings on our site show the range. One DL380 Gen10 8SFF barebone chassis arrives with no storage controller at all. The other DL380 Gen10 8SFF with a P408i-a arrives with the controller already fitted.
| Component | What a DL380 Gen10 needs | In a barebone | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1–2× Xeon Scalable, 1st or 2nd Gen, LGA3647 | No | 3rd Gen parts are LGA4189 and will not seat |
| Heatsink | One per populated socket; high-performance type for top-bin CPUs | No | Wrong heatsink shows up as a thermal shutdown |
| Memory | DDR4 RDIMM or LRDIMM, 2666 or 2933 MT/s, 12 slots per CPU | No | DDR5 and DDR3 do not fit |
| Power supply | Flexible slot, 500W / 800W / 1600W, two for redundancy | Sometimes one | The rating has to cover GPU load |
| Drive caddies | 2.5-inch Smart Carrier, one per bay in use | Rarely | A bare drive without a carrier will not seat |
| Rack rails | Chassis-specific rail kit | Usually no | Check rack depth and round vs square holes |
| Riser | Primary PCIe riser | Usually yes | Secondary and tertiary risers are separate parts |
| iLO 5 | On the system board | Yes | Advanced features need a license |
CPU, heatsink and memory: the three parts that stop a POST
The DL380 Gen10 takes Intel Xeon Scalable on socket LGA3647 — first and second generation. It does not take third-generation Ice Lake parts; those are LGA4189 and belong to the DL380 Gen10 Plus. No firmware update fixes that. If a CPU does not drop in without force, it is the wrong generation.
One populated socket is enough to POST. The second is optional, but everything wired to CPU 2 stays dark until you fit it: its twelve DIMM slots and the PCIe slots on the secondary riser. If you plan a GPU or a 100GbE NIC, budget for the second CPU up front.
Heatsinks are almost never included, and there are two types. Standard heatsinks cover the lower TDP parts; high-performance heatsinks are needed for top-bin Gold and Platinum CPUs. Fitting the wrong one gives you a thermal shutdown that reads like a dead board. Send the exact CPU part number and we will match the heatsink — this is the most common mismatch on a self-assembled Gen10.
Memory is DDR4 only: RDIMM or LRDIMM at 2666 MT/s with first-generation Scalable, 2933 with second-generation. DDR5 does not fit and no adapter changes that. Each CPU has six channels with two slots per channel — 12 DIMMs per socket, 24 in a two-socket build.
The server will POST with a single DIMM in the correct slot, and that is the trap. One DIMM per CPU means one channel out of six is active, and memory bandwidth drops to roughly a sixth of what the platform can deliver — exactly the resource that 100GbE and InfiniBand workloads consume. Six 16GB RDIMMs will beat two 32GB RDIMMs in a NIC-bound workload.
Drives, caddies, and the controller decision
8SFF means eight 2.5-inch bays. It does not mean eight drives, and it usually does not mean eight caddies. HPE 2.5-inch drives mount in a Smart Carrier; a bare drive with no carrier will not seat. A 2.4TB 10K SAS 2.5-inch drive is the right form factor and interface for this chassis, but the carrier is a different part number.
The controller choice depends on what you intend to run.
| What you plan to run | Controller to fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| ESXi or Hyper-V with hardware RAID | P408i-a (2GB cache) or 9460-8i | Cache plus a healthy energy pack keeps write-back enabled |
| TrueNAS, unRAID, any ZFS pool | 9300-8i or 9500-8i HBA in IT mode | ZFS wants raw disks, not a RAID volume |
| vSAN or other software-defined storage | HBA, passed through | The hypervisor owns the disks |
| Boot mirror only, no data array | Embedded S100i (SATA only) | Keeps both PCIe slots free for NICs |
If the listing includes a P408i-a, check the energy pack. The controller carries 2GB of cache but only uses it for write-back while the battery or capacitor pack is healthy. With a missing or aged pack it falls back to write-through, and write performance drops hard — a five-minute check that explains a lot of "slow" used controllers. For TrueNAS, unRAID or any ZFS build, skip the Smart Array and fit an HBA: a 9300-8i 8-port HBA flashed to IT mode is the standard answer on this generation, and being PCIe 3.0 it matches the Gen10 slots exactly. More on that trade-off in our MegaRAID 9361 vs 9460 vs 9560 comparison.
Power, rails, and when a barebone is the wrong buy
Gen10 uses flexible-slot power supplies rated at 500W, 800W and 1600W. One unit boots the server; two give redundancy. Check the rating before adding GPUs — a 500W unit will not carry a pair of high-TDP cards, and mixing wattages leaves redundancy at the lower rating.
The rest is small and annoying. Rack rails are usually not included and are chassis-specific. Drive blanks matter for airflow when you populate fewer than eight bays. None of it is hard to source; all of it delays a build if you find out late.
Buy a barebone when you already own the CPUs, memory and drives, or when you are rebuilding from a decommissioned machine and can reuse its parts. Do not buy one if you need a running server this month and have no parts bin — a configured unit, or a 1U platform such as the Dell PowerEdge R650xs 8×2.5, will cost you less in time than assembling a 2U from scratch. Still deciding between chassis generations? Our HPE ProLiant vs Dell PowerEdge vs Supermicro comparison covers where the DL380 Gen10 sits.
FAQ
Can I use a DL380 Gen10 Plus CPU in a standard Gen10?
No. The Gen10 uses LGA3647 for first and second-generation Xeon Scalable. The Gen10 Plus uses LGA4189, so the third-generation CPU will not seat.
Do I need both CPUs to boot a DL380 Gen10?
No. One CPU in socket 1 is enough to POST. The second socket unlocks its twelve DIMM slots and the PCIe slots wired to it.
Will DDR5 memory work in a DL380 Gen10?
No. The platform is DDR4 only, RDIMM or LRDIMM, at 2666 or 2933 MT/s. DDR5 is keyed differently and will not fit.
How many DIMMs should I fit for a 100GbE workload?
Populate all six channels per CPU. Six DIMMs per socket gives full bandwidth. Fewer DIMMs cost throughput long before you run out of capacity.
Can I put 3.5-inch drives in an 8SFF chassis?
No. 8SFF is eight 2.5-inch bays. 3.5-inch drives need the LFF chassis with a different backplane and drive cage.
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