DELL PowerEdge R730xd 2U rack server 2× Xeon E5-2680 v3 12-core 2.5 GHz 64 GB DDR4 24× 400 GB SSD H730

Dense 2U storage server

The Dell PowerEdge R730xd packs twenty-four 2.5-inch drive bays into a 2U rack chassis. Dual Xeon E5-2680 v3 processors deliver twenty-four cores at 2.5 GHz with 3.3 GHz turbo. Sixty-four gigabytes of DDR4 ECC memory and a PERC H730 RAID controller with battery-backed cache handle demanding storage workloads. Redundant 750-watt platinum power supplies and iDRAC8 Enterprise management complete the package.

Suits storage-heavy roles

This configuration targets databases, virtual desktop infrastructure and data-warehouse nodes that benefit from high drive-count density. The quad-port network daughter card provides two 1 GbE and two 10 Gb SFP+ links for flexible connectivity. Organisations needing fewer drive bays, different drive capacities or a smaller rack footprint should evaluate other platforms. Buyers requiring GPU acceleration or specialised compute cards will need a chassis with PCIe expansion beyond the storage-focused backplane.

Twenty-four 400 GB SATA SSDs decide fit

The installed complement of twenty-four 400 GB SATA solid-state drives sets the usable capacity and performance baseline. The PERC H730 supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60 plus pass-through mode for software-defined storage. Memory can scale to 1.5 TB across twenty-four DDR4 slots when workloads demand more than the factory 64 GB. Verify that SATA SSD endurance and the 12 Gb/s SAS/SATA controller bandwidth match your application requirements.