DELL PowerEdge R730xd 12 Bay 3.5" 2U Rack Server 2x Xeon E5-2680 v3 2.5GHz 12 Core 256GB DDR4 H730 12x 8TB HDD

Dense 2U Storage Server

The Dell PowerEdge R730xd is a 2U rackmount system populated with twelve 3.5-inch drive bays, dual 12-core Xeon processors at 2.5 GHz and 256 GB of DDR4 ECC memory. A PERC H730 controller with 1 GB cache manages the twelve 8 TB 7.2K SATA disks in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 or 60. Redundant 750 W platinum supplies, iDRAC8 Enterprise and quad-port 1/10 GbE networking complete the platform. It targets midsize and large enterprises running data warehouses, VDI, databases or HPC data nodes.

Fit and Limitations

Organisations needing high-capacity spinning storage with hardware RAID in a compact 2U form factor will find the twelve-bay layout and dual-socket compute a match. Buyers who require all-flash configurations, more than two processor sockets or memory beyond the 1.5 TB DDR4 ceiling should evaluate alternative platforms. The SATA 6 Gb/s interface also limits peak throughput compared with SAS-attached flash arrays.

Deciding Specification

The single figure that determines suitability is the twelve 3.5-inch SATA bays paired with the H730 controller; if the workload demands that exact density of 7.2K rotational storage with RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60 support, this server fits, otherwise a different chassis or controller is required.