Can I put in laptop 2.5" SATA drives into an HP ProLiant DL380 G5?

Question

I have an HP DL380 G5 server and I was wondering if can I put in standard notebook 2.5" SATA drives?

In the front where the drives go, the SATA connections dont seem to fit.

Solution 1

As ewwhite points out they'll physically fit into the servers with the correct disk caddies but you don't have to look far online to read the tales of woe that people run into when using non-HP disks with HP controllers as HP-branded disks have specific firmware on them that extend the functionality, reliability and in some cases performance of their disks. I just want you to be aware of this.

Solution 2

Yes, you can. (It's tacky, but it will work)

Here's a very good reason not to...

But if you choose to move forward...

You'll need to place the drive in an HP drive carrier/caddy/tray. This is what secures the disk in the hard drive bay and provides hotplug connections to power and the SATA/SAS connection. This interfaces with the SAS SFF-8482 connector on the DL380 G5's drive backplane.

I buy mine from eBay or Amazon when I need to use a non-standard disk (like a specialized SSD) in an HP ProLiant server.

Solution 3

I will happily use non-branded HDD in servers in peripheral roles, like re-using an older server as an off-site backup target. Every claim I have ever seen regarding special firmware that makes them better has been unsubstantiated. And the idea that buying branded HDD because then they'll be under warranty with the rest of the server.... So I should buy HDD that cost TWICE as much because maybe 1 out of 20 will fail, instead of just keeping 2 or 3 spares on hand?

Enormous server farms have sampled tens of thousands of drives and found no difference in the failure rate of so-called "enterprise" drives. Here is one example: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/enterprise-drive-reliability/

Bottom line is I think it's a money grab, a bit of a scam/scare to try to get companies to pay through the nose. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But since you're asking...