This is the biggest vendor battle in the modern 2U space. Dell 15G against HPE Gen11. One is a mature end-of-sale platform with deep refurb availability, the other a current-gen DDR5 machine still carrying full OEM sticker price. Procurement, virtualization, and infrastructure architects read this one differently, so we will lay out the facts without a forced winner.
At a glance
| Spec | PowerEdge R750 | ProLiant DL380 Gen11 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | 15G (Dell) | Gen11 (HPE) |
| CPU sockets | 2 | 2 |
| Max memory | 8TB DDR4 | 8TB DDR5 |
| Drive bays | 24 SFF (+2 rear) | 24 SFF |
| End of sale | Not published by Dell | still shipping |
| End of support | Per service tag | not announced |
| Lifecycle | end of sale | current |
| Remote management | iDRAC 9 Enterprise | iLO 6 Advanced |
| RAID family | PERC H345/H745/H755/H755N | MR408i-o/MR416i-p/MR216i-p/SR932i-p |
| OEM support plan | ProSupport / ProSupport Plus (4-hour mission-critical) | Foundation Care / Proactive Care (24×7 Call-to-Repair) |
Platform and silicon
The R750 runs 3rd-gen Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake) on a C620A chipset, 32 DDR4-3200 DIMM slots, up to 8TB memory. DL380 Gen11 jumps to 4th or 5th-gen Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids / Emerald Rapids), 32 DDR5-4800 or 5600 slots, same 8TB memory ceiling. PCIe Gen4 on R750; Gen5 on Gen11. For VM density and modern AI-inference workloads the Gen11 bus headroom matters; for traditional DB and ERP, the R750 delivers near-identical real-world throughput at a lower cost on the refurb market.
BMC and remote management: iDRAC 9 Enterprise vs iLO 6 Advanced
iDRAC 9 Enterprise on R750 is mature, well-documented, and integrates cleanly into OME (OpenManage Enterprise). iLO 6 Advanced on Gen11 pairs with InfoSight predictive analytics — HPE’s telemetry cloud that flags failing components before they fail. If your NOC team lives in iDRAC, switching to iLO is a real retraining line item. If you already run mixed, the Redfish API covers routine day-two operations on both sides.
Storage and RAID
R750 offers up to 24 SFF or 12 LFF (plus 2 rear SFF) with PERC H755 (hardware RAID, cache-to-flash, NVMe pass-through). DL380 Gen11 scales to 24 SFF with MR416i-p or MR216i-p (Broadcom-based, different firmware and management). NVMe raw-device support is cleaner on Gen11 in our experience. Both accept mainstream 12Gb SAS3 drives. Drives DO NOT swap across vendors.
Firmware and tooling ecosystem
Dell’s DSU (Dell System Update) gives you a single command to apply the whole firmware stack on R750; HPE’s Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) does the same for Gen11. Both ship on an ISO; both integrate with Ansible and Chef modules. OS support is parity — VMware ESXi 8.0 U2, Windows Server 2022, RHEL 9, Ubuntu 24.04. The real difference shows in BIOS-lifecycle automation: Dell’s Lifecycle Controller handles bare-metal re-deployment slightly faster, HPE’s Intelligent Provisioning pre-stages driver bundles better.
Total cost of ownership: 3-year and 5-year horizons
Over 3 years, a new Gen11 from HPE carries full OEM list price; an equivalent refurb R750 from ICD is quoted per configuration. Power draw is similar. Support: HPE Foundation Care 3-year 24×7 or Dell ProSupport 3-year adds an OEM support line on top. ICD Care+ bundles both brands under one contract, quoted per fleet, with parts supplied from Cairo — that is the line item that reshapes the math. Over 5 years the R750 refurb + ICD Care+ path is roughly 55-65% cheaper than the Gen11 new + OEM support path.
Refurb market reality
R750 refurb availability is excellent — Dell 15G parts flood the secondary market as enterprises upgrade to R760. DL380 Gen11 refurb is thin because the platform is still current — the few units that surface sell close to new price. If budget matters and workload is steady-state, R750 refurb is the mature choice. If you need DDR5 memory bandwidth today, Gen11 new is unavoidable.
Third-party maintenance vs OEM renewal
ICD Care+ covers both platforms on a single contract with the same dispatch SLA. OEM alternatives: Dell ProSupport Plus on refurb, HPE Foundation Care Extended on Gen11, each priced per server per year. Third-party maintenance from Park Place or Curvature is priced per server per year but treats each brand as a separate contract and separate ticket queue. ICD runs one queue, one engineer, both brands.
When PowerEdge R750 is the right call
Go with R750 when: you run VMware and Dell OME is already your operational backbone; you can buy refurb and need the capex win; your workload is traditional virtualization, DB, ERP where PCIe Gen4 is plenty; your team lives in iDRAC and a re-training cycle is not in the budget.
When ProLiant DL380 Gen11 wins
Go with DL380 Gen11 when: you need DDR5 memory bandwidth for ML/AI inference, in-memory analytics, or large vSAN clusters; you want 5 more years of OEM runway before the next refresh; InfoSight predictive telemetry is already in your stack; you have an HPE reseller relationship that delivers dollar-for-dollar credits.
ICD catalog today
PowerEdge R750: memory, SSDs, HDDs, RAID controllers and power supplies from the ICD Dell catalog.
ProLiant DL380 Gen11: memory, SSDs, HDDs, RAID controllers and power supplies from the ICD HPE catalog.
Both platforms ship from Cairo, with same-day delivery in Cairo and Giza. Cross-reference sheets, firmware bundles, and compatibility checks come free with every quote. Need parts for both sides of a mixed estate? One ICD quote covers every brand you run.
Related: PowerEdge R750 parts catalog | ProLiant DL380 Gen11 parts catalog | ICD Care+ single-vendor-agnostic support.