DELL PowerEdge R740xd2 2U 26-Bay 3.5" 2x Xeon Gold 6150 2.7GHz 18C 128GB DDR4 HBA330 iDRAC9 2x 1100W

Storage density and compute capacity

The Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 is a 2U rack server built for high-capacity storage workloads. It ships with 26 front-access 3.5-inch drive trays, dual Intel Xeon Gold 6150 processors running at 2.7GHz with 18 cores each, and 128GB of DDR4-2666 ECC registered memory across 16 slots. The PERC HBA330 controller provides 12Gb/s SAS and SATA connectivity, while iDRAC9 Enterprise enables full remote management. Dual 1100W platinum power supplies deliver redundant hot-swap power.

Fit for storage-first deployments

This server suits organisations running software-defined storage, backup repositories, big data analytics or media archives that need maximum drive count in a 2U footprint. It is not for buyers who require installed drives, additional PCIe expansion beyond the OCP 2.0 mezzanine card, or workloads that demand more than two processor sockets. The 1TB maximum memory ceiling and 16 DIMM slots also limit very large in-memory databases.

26-bay 3.5-inch front configuration

The defining specification is the 26-bay 3.5-inch front layout, which sets the storage density ceiling for this platform. With the HBA330 supporting SAS and SATA drives only, capacity scales through large-form-factor spinning disks or SATA SSDs. This bay count, combined with dual 18-core Xeons and 128GB DDR4, determines whether the R740xd2 matches a storage-heavy, compute-moderate profile.