ProLiant ML30 Gen10 Tower Server Bundle with Intel Xeon E-2136, 64GB DDR4, 8TB SSD, RAID, Windows Server 2019

Updated 1/7/2025 Microsoft deactivated the machine, and say the Windows Server 2019 license is pirated. Microsoft won't help and will only refer me to Aventis. The machine can't be used, I can't create users, or legally use the machine. Further, Microsoft only sell more recent versions of WS (that i don't want), so it's going to cost over $2,000 to purchase the later version and the user CALs and the RDP CALs needed to get the maching up an running. Aventis are slowly stringing me along, I have zero confidence they intend to help in any way. Meanwhile my server is useless. The license you get isn't the nice boxed license shown in the picture, it's a white OEM envelope. I should have guessed it was fake at the time as when I scratched off the covering to reveal the product key, it actually removed some of the key data. OK - I want to give this 4.5 stars, I was quite impressed with the server. Got this from Aventis as a bundle with E-2136. Arrived on time though tracking initially said it would be a few days later than Amazon had promised. Box arrived, inside was the HP sealed server box with label saying it was an E-2224, a lesser 4-core CPU than the E-2136 hex-core I had ordered. It took a couple days for Aventis to tell me to open the sealed box and turn the machine on as they believed it actually did have an E-2136, and to my amazement it did. The SSD's were Samsung 870 QBO which I was very happy about. The four DDR4 RAM sticks were Kingston KSM29ES8/16ME or so I thought, but after installing I noticed one of the sticks was a slightly different color. Looking again at the packaging it turned out one of the four was a faster KSM32ED8/16HD. I contacted support again and wasted another day or two as I was concerned the mismatch might be an issue. Seems to not be. Included in the box was a LITEON external USB optical drive rather than the internal drive shown in the pics. Also the Windows 2109 Server was not the retail edition as illustrated, but the OEM version. :( Installation was easy using the Intelligent Provisioning, however at first the optical drive was not seen, it seemed to cure itself overnight and just worked the next day, perhaps removing and inserting the DVD into the drive did the trick. One thing I wish I had realized is that the "Server RAID Controller: Smart Array S100i Gen10" is a software RAID controller, not a harware RAID controller! This probably has a performance hit with RAID5. Giving the controller a name that sounds like a physical thing is deceptive. Windows Server install was fast and easy once the external optical drive was recognized. Nice system for what it is. Probably can buy the same thing and drives / RAM etc elsewhere for a slightly better price, but having all from one supplier who gets generally good reviews for their support has a lot to be said for it. The Product Code label on the Windows Server 2019 OEM had a peel/scrape off sticker that has to be removed to reveal the full product code. It disintegrates as you remove it and needs some scraping. The (not aggressive) scraping also removed some of the product code. Using a magnifier I could make out all but one letter of the code, and came up with a shortlist of about 10 possible letters that it could be based on the remains of the printing. Guess #3 was correct. Be careful removing the label! So all ended up well, a few hickups that caused delays and all turned out to be non-issues. Support was quite helpful but you have to go through Amazon contact seller and wait for a reply until (after asking) they give you the direct support number. The software RAID controller is probably the most disappointing thing and maybe it too is a non-issue, but I think it must consume a lot of CPU performing checksums/CRC on the data being striped to the array.

Very pleased with both the server and the support from the suppler. System in production now for several weeks and not a hiccup whatsoever.