One index of the authoritative specification documents for every vendor we supply, what each document is good for, and how to use them to verify a quote before you sign it.
Every vendor publishes a definitive specification document, free, and it beats any reseller description including ours. Here is where each one lives and what it is actually good for.
The document you want, by vendor
| Vendor | Document | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| HPE | QuickSpecs, via the HPE Product Bulletin | Supported CPUs, memory rules, controller and drive options with part numbers. Versioned and dated |
| HPE | PartSurfer | What is fitted in a specific serial number, and part number equivalents |
| Dell | Spec sheet (2 pages) | Fast sanity check on CPU, memory, drives and I/O |
| Dell | Technical guide | Population rules, riser maps, thermal restrictions, comparison against the previous generation |
| Dell | Info Hub | Portfolio overviews, benchmark and validated design papers |
| Lenovo | PSREF | Model-by-model configurations across ThinkSystem and ThinkStation |
| Lenovo | Lenovo Press product guides | Deep per-option documentation, including GPU and adapter guides |
| Supermicro | Per-system and per-board datasheet PDFs, plus naming convention pages | Block diagrams, backplane and riser options, tested CPU lists |
| ASUS / GIGABYTE | Per-model product pages with spec tables and manual downloads | Slot layout, supported CPU list, chassis options |
| Intel | Product brief and ARK specification pages | Per-SKU cores, cache, TDP, socket, feature support |
| AMD | EPYC datasheets and architecture overviews | Full SKU stack with cores, cache, TDP, channels, 1P or 2P |
| NVIDIA | Product page datasheets and Enterprise Reference Architectures | GPU specifications and validated cluster designs |
How to verify a quote in five minutes
- Confirm the platform generation from the model number, then open that platform's QuickSpecs, technical guide or PSREF entry.
- Check the CPU SKU appears in that platform's supported processor table, not just that the socket matches.
- Check the memory configuration against the population rules: channels filled, DIMMs per channel, resulting speed.
- Check drive bays by zone and interface, and confirm the backplane and controller support what is being quoted.
- Check the power supplies against the configured load, especially with GPUs or high-TDP CPUs.
- Note the document version and date. Support tables change between revisions.
Points to watch
- Vendor documents describe what the vendor supports today. On withdrawn products they may be archived, and older revisions are sometimes the only place a discontinued option is listed.
- A configuration can be technically possible and unsupported. On used hardware that distinction only matters if you are buying support, so decide that first.
- Regional and TAA variants of the same model exist with different part numbers and support entitlements.
- PDF spec sheets circulated by third parties are often out of date. Take the copy from the vendor domain.
The ETON view
We publish this index because an informed buyer is a faster buyer. Most of the back and forth in a hardware purchase is a compatibility question that a QuickSpecs or technical guide answers in two minutes, and we would rather spend the conversation on availability, lead time and price, which is where we add something the documents cannot.
What vendor documents will not tell you is what is actually obtainable this month, what the honest lead time is on a specific configuration, whether the previous generation does the job for a third of the money, or what the kit is worth when you retire it. That is our side of the work: we source across the channel and the secondary market, hold stock, and buy back and redeploy.
If you have a specification, a part number list or a competing quote, send it over. We will check it against the vendor documents ourselves and come back with what fits, what is available and what it costs.
Related infrastructure
Category: Servers · Vendor: HPE, Dell, Lenovo, Supermicro, ASUS, GIGABYTE, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD · Technology: QuickSpecs, PSREF, technical guides, spec sheets, product briefs · Last verified: 09 Sep 2026 · ~3 min read
Sourcing this kind of infrastructure? Talk to ETON about availability, lead time and pricing.
