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 | 4TB DDR4 | 4TB DDR5 |
| Drive bays | 16 SFF | 24 SFF |
| End of sale | 2024-09-30 | still shipping |
| End of support | 2028-06-30 | not announced |
| Lifecycle | end of sale | current |
| Remote management | iDRAC 9 Enterprise | iLO 5 Advanced |
| RAID family | PERC H730/H740P/H750/H755 | Smart Array P408/P816/MR416i-p/MR216i-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 4TB memory. DL380 Gen11 jumps to 4th or 5th-gen Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids / Emerald Rapids), 32 DDR5-4800 or 5600 slots, same 4TB ceiling on shipping configurations. 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 fraction of the cost on the refurb market.
BMC and remote management: iDRAC 9 Enterprise vs iLO 5 Advanced
iDRAC 9 Enterprise on R750 is mature, well-documented, and integrates cleanly into OME (OpenManage Enterprise). iLO 5 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 80% of day-two operations on both sides.
Storage and RAID
R750 offers 16 SFF or 8 LFF with PERC H755 (hardware RAID, cache-to-flash, NVMe pass-through). DL380 Gen11 scales to 24 SFF with Smart Array MR416i-p or MR216i-p (Broadcom-based, same silicon family internally as PERC H755, 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 tags prevent a Dell SAS SSD from working in an HPE backplane without Intelligent Provisioning exceptions.
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 lists around $12,000-$16,000 USD configured; an equivalent refurb R750 from ICD runs $3,800-$5,500 USD. Power draw is similar (roughly 500-700W under load). Support: HPE Foundation Care 3-year 24×7 adds $1,800-$2,400. Dell ProSupport 3-year adds $1,500-$2,100. ICD Care+ bundles both brands at $650-$900 per server per year with parts inventory on shelf in 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 — you pay closer to 80% of new price in the few units that surface. 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 ($600-$900/year on refurb), HPE Foundation Care Extended ($800-$1,200/year on Gen11). Third-party maintenance from Park Place or Curvature typically lands at $400-$700 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 at $4K-$5K 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 stock today
PowerEdge R750: 591 Dell memory SKUs; 2961 SSD SKUs; 5623 HDD SKUs; 936 RAID controller SKUs; 128 PSU SKUs.
ProLiant DL380 Gen11: 1353 HPE memory SKUs; 4724 SSD SKUs; 4288 HDD SKUs; 1167 RAID controller SKUs; 34 PSU SKUs.
Both platforms ship from our Cairo warehouse with same-day dispatch on in-stock parts. 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.