At this year’s HP Discover I got a fairly complete rundown of the feature enhancements to the ProLiant MicroServer. HP opted for Intel processor options in the Gen8 MicroServer, officially added support for 16GB of RAM, and include drive bays for up to 12TB of storage. They also dramatically simplified the design for upgrades and maintenance. For businesses who need it, the HP iLO Management Engine is an option. You can opt to power the MicroServer with either Windows Server or RedHat Linux.

HP also added some nice aesthetic touches to the design as well. While you may not want a server sitting in a public location in your office, the Microserver industrial design is elegant enough that it would make for an interesting conversation piece. Fan noise is reduced by using a larger fan rotating at a slower speed.