DELL PowerEdge R740xd2 2U rack server 2x Xeon Gold 6154 3.0GHz 18 Core 64GB DDR4 26x 4TB SATA H730P

26-bay 2U storage server

The Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 is a 2U rack server built for high-capacity storage workloads. It ships with 26 front-accessible 3.5-inch drive bays populated by 4TB 7.2K SATA hard drives. Dual Intel Xeon Gold 6154 processors, each with 18 cores running at 3.0GHz up to 3.7GHz turbo, provide the compute foundation. The system includes 64GB of DDR4-2666 ECC registered memory across 16 slots and a PERC H730P RAID controller with 2GB cache.

Suited for dense backup and archive.

This configuration targets organisations that need maximum raw capacity in a 2U footprint, such as backup repositories, media archives, software-defined storage clusters, and big-data ingest nodes. The 7.2K SATA drives deliver high throughput for sequential workloads but cannot match the random I/O or latency of solid-state media. Buyers who need sub-millisecond latency, high IOPS for transactional databases, or a smaller chassis with fewer bays should evaluate other platforms.

26 × 4TB 7.2K SATA drives behind H730P

The single specification that decides fit is the 26-bay 3.5-inch layout filled with 4TB 7.2K SATA hard drives managed by the PERC H730P controller supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 and pass-through. This combination fixes usable capacity, spindle speed, and RAID options; if the workload demands a different drive count, interface, or performance tier, the server cannot be reconfigured to match without replacing the storage layer.