DELL PowerEdge R740xd2 2U rack server 2x Xeon Gold 6230 2.1GHz 20C 512GB DDR4 26x 8TB HDD H730P

Storage-dense 2U rack server

The Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 is a 2U rackmount server built around two Intel Xeon Gold 6230 processors running at 2.1GHz with 3.9GHz turbo. Twenty cores per socket and 512GB of DDR4 ECC registered memory across sixteen slots give it the compute and memory foundation for data-intensive workloads such as software-defined storage, big-data analytics and backup repositories. Twenty-six enterprise 8TB 7.2K SATA drives sit behind a PERC H730P 2GB controller with battery-backed cache, and dual 1100W platinum power supplies provide redundant hot-swap power.

Suited for high-capacity archives.

Organisations that need maximum raw capacity in a 2U footprint will use the twenty-six 3.5-inch bays for bulk storage, archiving or media libraries. The dual-port 1GbE LOM and the Broadcom 57414 dual-port 10/25Gb SFP28 OCP mezzanine card cover mainstream network connectivity, while iDRAC 9 Enterprise handles remote management. Buyers who need ultra-low-latency all-flash arrays, GPU compute density or a chassis smaller than 2U should evaluate alternative platforms.

Twenty-six 3.5-inch drive bays define the storage

The single specification that decides fit is the twenty-six-bay 3.5-inch chassis populated with 8TB 7.2K SATA drives and the H730P RAID controller supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60. That bay count and controller set the maximum raw capacity and the RAID topology available without adding external enclosures.