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ITAD Store Centurion is Moving to a New Location! Effective Saturday 27 July you can find us at Unit 10 Display Gardens, 6 Sarel Baard Crescent, Gateway Industrial Park, Rooihuiskraal, Centurion.
Exploring the Different Types of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers: A Comprehensive Guide

Exploring the Different Types of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers: A Comprehensive Guide

Dell PowerEdge servers are renowned for their reliability, performance, and flexibility, making them a top choice for businesses of all sizes. They come in various configurations, each tailored to meet specific needs and workloads. This article delves into the different types of Dell PowerEdge servers and their unique features.

Rack Servers

Rack servers are designed for installation in a server rack, making them ideal for data centers and environments where space efficiency is crucial. Here's a closer look at the different models within the rack server category:

R2xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R220
  • Description: The R2xx series represents the lowest-end models in the Dell PowerEdge rack server lineup. These are 1U servers typically featuring no power redundancy, no hot-swap hard drives, and very limited in capabilities. They are entry-level single processor servers, making them a good, power-efficient choice for simple tasks such as acting as a pfSense router.
  • Ideal Use: Simple, low-power tasks.

R3xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R320
  • Description: The R3xx series adds some quality-of-life features like hot-swap drives and redundant power supplies while remaining a single-processor, low-end server. These 1U servers are more robust than the R2xx but still cater to less demanding applications.
  • Ideal Use: Entry-level applications requiring basic redundancy and hot-swap capabilities.

R4xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R420, R430
  • Description: The R4xx series varies by generation. Sometimes it’s a low-end dual-processor system (e.g., R420), while other times it’s a single-processor. These 1U servers provide a balance between cost and performance.
  • Ideal Use: Medium-duty applications with a need for moderate compute power and redundancy.

R5xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R520
  • Description: The R5xx series is a 2U variant of the R4xx series, offering the same processor and motherboard design but with greater hard drive and PCIe expandability.
  • Ideal Use: Applications requiring more storage and expansion capabilities than what a 1U server can offer.

R6xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R640
  • Description: The R6xx series is a 1U high-density compute server with dual processors and higher core counts. These servers are designed for demanding applications that require significant processing power within a compact form factor.
  • Ideal Use: Compute-intensive applications requiring high performance in a compact size.

R7xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R740
  • Description: The R7xx series is a 2U version of the R6xx, providing a great combination of processing power and expandability. These servers are very common due to their balance of performance and capacity.
  • Ideal Use: Versatile applications that need both significant compute power and storage capacity.

R8xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R820
  • Description: The R8xx series moves to four CPUs, which is quite rare nowadays. These 2U servers offer similar features to the R7xx series but with additional processing power.
  • Ideal Use: High-performance computing tasks requiring multiple CPUs.

R9xx Series

  • Example: PowerEdge R940
  • Description: The R9xx series represents the pinnacle of the PowerEdge rack servers with four CPUs and a 4U form factor. These servers are designed for maximum capacity in terms of CPU, memory, expandability, and power draw.
  • Ideal Use: Mission-critical applications that require maximum performance and reliability.

Here is a link to some of the Dell servers and storage arrays we have in stock https://itadstore.co.za/collections/dell-servers-storage-arrays  please fee to enquire if you don't see what you are looking for, as we might be able to source some parts or complete servers for you.

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