HPE ProLiant BL420c Gen8 Parts

The HPE ProLiant BL420c Gen8 is the entry-level half-height c-Class server blade of the Gen8 range, built on the Intel C600 chipset and taking one or two Intel Xeon E5-2400 series processors across 12 DDR3 DIMM slots. It is not a standalone machine: it plugs into an HPE BladeSystem c7000 or c3000 enclosure, which supplies its power, its cooling and its network fabric. Every part below is genuine HPE, available new and refurbished, and tested for compatibility before it ships. Live pricing for each part number appears in the tables further down this page.

BL420c Gen8 Platform at a Glance

• Form factor: half-height c-Class server blade with no power supplies, fans or rails of its own — the enclosure pools power across up to six supplies and up to ten Active Cool fans
• Enclosure: the 10U HPE BladeSystem c7000, holding sixteen of these blades vertically, or the 6U c3000, holding eight horizontally
• Processors: one or two Intel Xeon E5-2400 or E5-2400 v2 series, four to ten cores each, with 10MB to 25MB of shared L3 cache
• Memory: 12 DDR3 DIMM slots — six per processor, three channels at two DIMMs per channel — taking SmartMemory RDIMMs, UDIMMs or LRDIMMs to 384GB
• Drive bays: two hot-plug SFF SAS, SATA or solid state bays on the SmartDrive (SC) carrier, reaching 4.0TB on two 2TB drives
• Storage controller: a Smart Array P220i with 512MB flash backed write cache, or a Dynamic Smart Array B320i, depending on the build
• Networking: one FlexibleLOM, always dual port, routed to enclosure interconnect bays 1 and 2
• Expansion: two mezzanine slots — an x8 PCIe 3.0 Type A slot, and an x16 PCIe 3.0 Type B slot that stays dark until a second processor is fitted
• Management: embedded HPE iLO 4 linked to the enclosure Onboard Administrator, plus internal MicroSDHC and USB 2.0 connectors
• Also listed below: LPe1205A and QMH2572 8Gb Fibre Channel adapters, QDR and FDR InfiniBand 544M mezzanines, the D2200sb storage blade, the PCI expansion blade and LTO tape blades

This blade is the E5-2400 half-height, and that is the fact most orders turn on. One or two Intel Xeon E5-2400 series processors, three memory channels per socket and twelve DDR3 slots — not the sixteen slots and four channels of the BL460c Gen8 beside it in the same enclosure. The memory kit list and the 384GB ceiling both follow from that.

Specifications on this page are taken from the HPE QuickSpecs for this server, HPE ProLiant BL420c Gen8 Server Blade QuickSpecs, Version 33.

Shop BL420c Gen8 Parts by Category

• BL420c Gen8 memory — PC3-12800 and PC3L-10600 Registered, Unbuffered and Load Reduced DDR3 kits from 2GB to 32GB
• BL420c Gen8 drives — hot-plug 2.5-inch SmartDrive SAS and SATA hard drives, 512e parts and solid state drives
• BL420c Gen8 storage controllers — Smart Array P721m external SAS mezzanines, plus B320i cache and SAS licence upgrades
• BL420c Gen8 networking adapters — 10Gb FlexFabric and Flex-10 FlexibleLOMs and mezzanines, with 1Gb options in both forms
• BL420c Gen8 processors — eight-core, six-core and quad-core Xeon E5-2400 kits, each complete with heatsink and fans

The BL420c Gen8 had no generation of its own before or after it, so the useful comparisons are its stablemates in the same enclosure: the Xeon E5-2600 HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen8, the AMD Opteron BL465c Gen8, the four-socket BL660c Gen8 and, from the preceding c-Class generation, the BL460c G7. See the rest under HPE ProLiant BL blade server parts or HPE parts by server model.

BL420c Gen8 Parts FAQ

What enclosure does the BL420c Gen8 need?
An HPE BladeSystem c7000 or c3000 enclosure. The blade has no power supplies, fans or rails of its own - the enclosure pools power across up to six supplies, cools with up to ten Active Cool fans, and provides the interconnect bays.

What processors does the BL420c Gen8 support?
One or two Intel Xeon E5-2400 or E5-2400 v2 series processors on the Intel C600 chipset. All processors within the blade must be identical, so a second CPU has to match the one already fitted.

How much memory can a BL420c Gen8 take?
384GB, using twelve 32GB quad-rank Load Reduced DIMMs. Registered DIMMs reach 192GB with twelve 16GB modules and Unbuffered DIMMs reach 96GB, and the three technologies cannot be mixed in one blade.

How many hard drives fit in a BL420c Gen8?
Two. The blade has two hot-plug small form factor bays taking SAS, SATA or solid state drives, for a maximum of 4.0TB on two 2TB drives.

Which RAID controller is built into the BL420c Gen8?
One of two, depending on the model: a Smart Array P220i with 512MB flash backed write cache and RAID 0 and 1, or a Dynamic Smart Array B320i, which adds RAID 1+0 and can do RAID 5 once the optional 512MB cache is fitted.

How is the BL420c Gen8 different from the BL460c Gen8?
It is the value blade of the pair. The BL420c Gen8 takes Intel Xeon E5-2400 processors with three memory channels per socket and twelve DIMM slots; the BL460c Gen8 takes E5-2600 processors with four channels and sixteen slots.

✅ Looking for a specific BL420c Gen8 part? Browse our full selection below.

Why Global One?

• Trusted by thousands. Over 36,000 customers in 100+ countries trust Global One Technology to deliver mission-critical HP Enterprise hardware - including Fortune 500 businesses, schools, hospitals, and federal, state, and local goverment agencies.
• HPE is our specialty! We only sell genuine HP Enterprise parts.
• EASY ordering process. Purchase online now with credit card or PayPal!
• FAST shipping. Global One Technology ships orders received by 4pm ET the same day and offers NEXT DAY delivery to US customers.