DELL PowerEdge R740xd 2U rack server 2× Xeon Silver 4116 2.1GHz 12-core 512GB DDR4 H730P 12× 3.5" trays

Dell PowerEdge R740xd 2U rack server

The Dell PowerEdge R740xd is a 2U rack-mount server system built for storage-dense workloads. It ships with two Intel Xeon Silver 4116 processors running at 2.1 GHz, each providing 12 cores for a total of 24 cores. The system includes 512 GB of DDR4 registered ECC memory across 16 modules and a Dell PERC H730P 2 GB storage controller supporting RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60. Twelve 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drive trays are populated without drives, and dual 750 W platinum power supplies provide redundant hot-swap power.

Suited for software-defined storage

This platform suits organisations deploying software-defined storage, service-provider infrastructure or virtual desktop environments that need high drive-count capacity in a 2U form factor. The quad-port network daughter card delivers two 1 GbE and two 10 Gb SFP+ connections, while iDRAC 9 Enterprise enables full remote management. Buyers who require GPU compute density, single-socket configurations or drive bays beyond the twelve 3.5-inch trays should evaluate other platforms.

Twelve 3.5-inch SAS/SATA trays define storage

The single specification that determines fit is the twelve 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drive trays with no drives installed. This fixes the maximum number of spinning disks or SATA SSDs the chassis can hold without expansion shelves. Memory scales to 3 TB across 24 DDR4 slots and the PERC H730P controller handles mixed RAID workloads, but the tray count is the hard limit for internal 3.5-inch storage devices.