{"title":"Dell 15th Gen 2U Servers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDell 15th Gen 2U servers deliver high-performance computing for data centers and businesses. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePowered by the latest Intel Xeon processors, these servers offer scalable solutions with expandable RAM, storage, and advanced management tools like Dell iDRAC and OpenManage. Designed for virtualization, cloud computing, and large-scale workloads, they maximize efficiency with an energy-saving design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/savemyserver.com\/\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-start=\"89\" data-end=\"107\"\u003eSave My Server\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, we proudly serve businesses and IT professionals in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/2905+Shawnee+Industrial+Way,+Suwanee,+GA+30024\/@34.0205029,-84.0634162,1962m\/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x88f597d27a655d4d:0x2d18244c703d422d!8m2!3d34.0207621!4d-84.06229!16s%2Fg%2F11bw43h64s?entry=ttu\u0026amp;g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eSuwanee, GA\u003c\/a\u003e, the Atlanta metro area, and across the United States. Our customers always come first—call or chat with us anytime for expert advice on servers, storage systems, and networking equipment. From our Suwanee location, we provide fast nationwide shipping on premium refurbished Dell, HP, and Lenovo servers. Explore our wide selection of certified, performance-tested IT gear, ready to power your business, data center, or home lab.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server","title":"Dell PowerEdge R750xs 8-Bay 3.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R750xs 8-Bay 3.5\" Hot-Swap is the LFF capacity-tier configuration of Dell's 15th gen cost-optimized 2U platform: eight large-format hot-swap bays for high-capacity NL-SAS or SATA drives, on the dual-socket-capable R750xs Ice Lake architecture. Up to 160 TB raw at 8 x 20 TB NL-SAS, with 15th gen platform currency at value-tier 2U economics. This is the R750xs configuration for smaller-scale capacity workloads: branch-office NAS, modest backup targets, departmental file servers, and entry-tier Ceph capacity nodes, where the 12-Bay R750xs LFF is more capacity than the deployment needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis page covers what changes at the 8-bay LFF chassis. The shared platform detail (the dual-socket-capable Ice Lake architecture, 16 DIMM slots, PCIe Gen4 expansion, and the R750xs versus R750 envelope comparison) is documented on the canonical \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\" page\u003c\/a\u003e. As a 15th gen platform the R750xs is no longer sold factory-new by Dell; Wholesale Servers stocks it refurbished and fully tested, as the cost-correct alternative to the R540 LFF predecessor or to stepping up to the R750 flagship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo spec an R750xs LFF build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page; we respond within 24 hours. Every unit ships after a 12+ hour burn-in that exercises every drive bay, memory channel, and PCIe slot, and carries our standard 180-day warranty, with 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium options available. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhen 8 LFF Bays Is the Right Capacity Tier\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 8-bay LFF chassis is the lower-capacity rung of the R750xs storage line. It exists for the deployment where eight large drives cover the requirement and twelve would be over-provisioned. Eight 3.5\" front bays for SAS or SATA spinning drives (or 3.5\" SAS SSDs in the rare case where 3.5\" flash makes sense), with no NVMe path: the LFF backplane is purpose-built for capacity-per-bay, not latency. The compute envelope underneath is the full R750xs platform, which is what separates this from a pure storage appliance: for converged nodes that run NAS plus deduplication and compression, or Ceph plus client workloads, the dual-socket-capable Ice Lake compute is meaningful. Where eight LFF bays is too few, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the next rung; where 1U density matters more than bay count, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/poweredge-r650xs-4-bay-3-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650xs 4-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the companion platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 8 LFF Bays\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEight 3.5\" SAS\/SATA hot-swap front bays. The 8-bay LFF backplane is SAS\/SATA only; there is no NVMe path on this chassis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNL-SAS HDD (up to 20 TB):\u003c\/strong\u003e the primary use case. 8 x 20 TB is 160 TB raw, roughly 120 TB usable at RAID 6 with one hot spare. Excellent sequential throughput, modest random IOPS. For branch NAS, small backup targets, and warm-tier storage at sub-200 TB deployment sizes.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSAS HDD (10K \/ 15K RPM):\u003c\/strong\u003e higher random IOPS at lower per-drive capacity, for workloads that need better random performance than NL-SAS without paying for SSD.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed SAS SSD plus NL-SAS:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 to 2 SAS SSDs in select bays as a hot tier, 6 to 7 NL-SAS HDDs for capacity. Useful for NAS deployments where frequently-accessed data benefits from an SSD tier.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn optional 2 x 2.5\" rear drive kit adds a small flash tier or a dedicated swap and log location without consuming a front bay. BOSS-S1 (a PCIe add-in card carrying two mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs in hardware RAID 1) handles OS boot, keeping all 8 LFF front bays available for data.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eRAID 6 is the non-negotiable default on large NL-SAS drives here, and the controller choice follows from that:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755 (8 GB flash-backed cache):\u003c\/strong\u003e the recommended controller for this chassis. RAID 6 with battery-backed write cache is what large-capacity NL-SAS needs, and the H755 is the right answer for production NAS and backup arrays.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745 (4 GB flash-backed cache):\u003c\/strong\u003e the lower-cache alternative where the array is read-dominant.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H355 \/ H345:\u003c\/strong\u003e RAID 0, 1, and 10 only. They do not do RAID 5 or RAID 6, so they are not appropriate for a parity-protected capacity array on this chassis; for RAID 6 the H755 or H745 is required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i (pass-through):\u003c\/strong\u003e required for Ceph, ZFS, and other software-defined storage that wants raw drives. Presents the disks directly to the OS with no RAID controller in the data path.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eS150 software RAID:\u003c\/strong\u003e chipset software RAID, for very entry-tier configurations only.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe do not quote RAID 5 on 14 TB and larger NL-SAS without an explicit customer override: at 18 to 20 TB, single-drive rebuilds can exceed 24 hours, and RAID 5 leaves the array exposed to a second-drive failure for that entire window.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eDual 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake-SP) processors on socket LGA 4189, Silver and Gold tier up to 32 cores per socket. The top-bin Platinum 8380 (40 cores) is not supported; that is reserved for the R750 flagship, and the 32-core ceiling is a genuine platform validation limit. On an LFF storage node, CPU is rarely the bottleneck. A single Silver 4310 or 4314 covers a straightforward NAS or archive target; step to a Gold 5318Y or 6338N when the node also runs dedup, compression, or erasure coding, which are CPU-bound. Single-socket is the common pattern on a storage box; the second socket is available for converged compute but is not a standard field upgrade, so decide socket count at procurement. Both sockets must carry matching CPUs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e16 DDR4 DIMM slots: 8 per CPU, one DIMM per channel, 8 channels per socket, registered ECC only, DDR4-3200. Maximum is 1 TB with 16 x 64 GB RDIMM, and there is no Optane PMem support (that is an R750 flagship feature). For an LFF NAS or backup target, size memory to the workload: 128 to 256 GB for file-system cache on a straightforward NAS, 256 to 512 GB where dedup-aware backup software keeps a large in-memory hash table. The 1 DPC topology means there is no second-DIMM-per-channel expansion path later, so populate to the target at procurement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs uses OCP NIC 3.0, the 15th gen shift away from the rNDC mezzanine of the 13th and 14th gen platforms. One OCP 3.0 slot plus the PCIe Gen4 expansion slots. For a production LFF NAS, 25 GbE is the standard recommendation; 10 GbE is acceptable for smaller branch deployments, and 100 GbE is worth it only on high-concurrency or high-throughput backup targets. Eight spinning drives will not saturate 100 GbE on their own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePCIe expansion is up to 6 slots (5 Gen4 plus 1 Gen3), all low-profile. On this chassis the budget is rarely tight: a 25 GbE OCP, the RAID controller, and the BOSS-S1 card leave headroom. Place any Gen4 adapter so it avoids the single Gen3 slot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not a GPU platform, and an LFF capacity chassis is the last place to put one. The value-tier power and PCIe budget supports at most a single-width 75W card (an NVIDIA A2 or L4) for incidental transcode, but there is no thermal or slot headroom for compute GPUs, and a storage node rarely wants one. For GPU compute, the R750 or the purpose-built R750xa is the right platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9 Generation\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eiDRAC9 Enterprise is the production recommendation, the same enhanced 15th gen iDRAC9 used across the R650 and R750: Active Health System, Secured Component Verification, iDRAC Direct via front-panel micro-USB, and Quick Sync 2.0. A hardware Silicon Root of Trust validates firmware at boot, with Secure Boot, signed firmware updates, and System Lockdown on the Enterprise and Datacenter tiers. TPM 2.0 is standard, and the Lifecycle Controller handles agent-free deployment and firmware management. For a storage node that often runs lights-out, the iDRAC9 remote console and drive-health telemetry are the day-to-day operational surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 8-bay LFF configuration draws less peak power than the SFF SSD variants, because spinning HDDs are lower power per drive than SAS SSDs at sustained load and the 8-bay count keeps aggregate drive power modest. Available PSU tiers are 600W, 800W, 1100W, and 1400W Platinum or Titanium.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWorkload Profile\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical Draw\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU Recommendation\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLight: single Silver CPU, modest memory, idle storage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e150-250W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 600W or 800W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBalanced: single or dual Gold CPU, 256 GB memory, active NAS\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e250-400W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 800W or 1100W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeavy: dual Gold CPU, 512 GB memory, active backup\/dedup\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e350-550W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1100W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth PSUs must match; mixed wattages are not supported. Standard fans cover all LFF configurations on this chassis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs and Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, standard 19-inch mount, chassis depth roughly 28 inches. Verify rack depth at quote time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 slots (5 Gen4 plus 1 Gen3), low-profile. Slot pressure is low on an LFF storage build.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e strong. The 15th gen platform sits inside active Dell ProSupport coverage, with excellent supply of CPUs, DIMMs, PERC controllers, PSUs, and LFF carriers.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eB21 2U sliding rail kit\u003c\/a\u003e (shared across R550 \/ R750xs \/ R760), an optional security bezel, the BOSS-S1 boot card, and the optional 2 x 2.5\" rear drive kit for a flash tier.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e a fully populated 8 x 20 TB LFF chassis carries roughly 16 lbs of rotating media and exceeds 60 lbs total, so a two-person lift is recommended. Eight active HDDs generate noticeable noise and vibration; this is a data-center-placement box, not an office-floor one.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e branch and departmental NAS, entry-tier backup targets, small Ceph capacity nodes, and archive storage where 15th gen platform currency matters and eight LFF bays (roughly 80 to 120 TB usable at RAID 6) covers the requirement. It fills the gap between the 1U R650xs 4-Bay LFF, which is undersized for mid-tier capacity, and the 12-Bay R750xs, which is over-provisioned for a smaller target.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e for pure cost-primary bulk storage on a short lifecycle, the 14th gen \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-8-bay-3-5-chassis-1\"\u003eR540 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e delivers equivalent spinning-disk performance at meaningfully lower acquisition cost. For more capacity per node, step to the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e; for the flagship envelope (32 DIMM slots, more PCIe, larger PSUs) alongside LFF capacity, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e. For SFF SSD or NVMe instead of capacity HDDs, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e this is the 15th gen 2U value-tier LFF platform for small-to-mid capacity storage. The 15th gen premium over the R540 earns its place when ProSupport coverage, converged compute on the storage node, or platform lifecycle alignment matter; for lowest-cost short-lifecycle storage, the R540 remains a valid call and we will quote both.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSame R750xs envelope constraints.\u003c\/strong\u003e 16 DIMM slots, 1 TB RDIMM ceiling, 32-core CPU cap, no Optane PMem, BOSS-S1 as an add-in card.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNo NVMe path on the LFF backplane.\u003c\/strong\u003e For NVMe on the R750xs, the SFF chassis variants are required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLong RAID rebuilds on large drives.\u003c\/strong\u003e 18 to 20 TB NL-SAS rebuilds can exceed 24 hours. RAID 6 is mandatory at this drive size, and a hot spare is strongly recommended.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSpinning-disk performance ceiling.\u003c\/strong\u003e Eight NL-SAS HDDs deliver strong sequential throughput but limited random IOPS, typically 100 to 200 aggregate. Random-IOPS workloads belong on an SFF SSD chassis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e3.5\" SAS SSD is rarely the right call.\u003c\/strong\u003e Per-TB cost is far higher than 2.5\" SAS SSD; if SSD is the requirement, the 8-Bay 2.5\" SFF chassis is the right platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eModest capacity ceiling.\u003c\/strong\u003e 8 x 20 TB (160 TB raw) is the upper bound. For larger capacity tiers, the 12-Bay R750xs or an R750 chassis is the right call.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAcoustic and weight profile.\u003c\/strong\u003e Eight active HDDs are loud, and a full chassis exceeds 60 lbs. Data-center placement and a two-person lift apply.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eRight for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eConsider alternatives for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBranch \/ departmental NAS (80-120 TB usable)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed more than 8 LFF bays (use R750xs 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEntry-tier backup targets at 15th gen currency\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed SFF SSD or NVMe storage (use R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEntry-tier Ceph capacity nodes (8 OSDs\/node)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed the flagship envelope (use R750 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDepartmental archive \/ compliance storage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCost-primary procurement (use R540 8-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConverged compute plus small-LFF storage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1U deployment density (use R650xs 4-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed 12 LFF bays?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e adds 50 percent more capacity per node.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed SFF drives or NVMe?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e brings the Universal Backplane with NVMe.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed the dual-socket flagship for LFF capacity?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the flagship envelope.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCost-primary at 14th gen?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-8-bay-3-5-chassis-1\"\u003eR540 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eR540 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (Cascade Lake, lower cost).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed 1U LFF capacity?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/poweredge-r650xs-4-bay-3-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650xs 4-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the 1U companion platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTell us your capacity target, workload type (NAS, backup, Ceph, or archive), memory target, network speed requirement, and quantity. We respond within 24 hours and will quote both the R750xs 8-Bay LFF and the R540 8-Bay LFF for a generational cost comparison where relevant. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery Wholesale Servers R750xs ships after a 12+ hour burn-in test covering every drive bay, memory channel, and PCIe slot. Standard 180-day warranty included, with 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium warranty options available. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page to start a configuration.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951266554055,"sku":"B-012114","price":4590.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-35-drives-753715.png?v=1765539667"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server","title":"Dell PowerEdge R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\" Hot-Swap is the canonical configuration of Dell's 15th gen cost-optimized 2U rack platform: eight 2.5\" hot-plug bays on the Universal Backplane with native PCIe Gen4 NVMe, dual 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake-SP, socket LGA 4189, Intel C621A chipset), 16 DDR4-3200 DIMM slots, and PCIe Gen4 throughout. It is the value-tier step down from the R750 flagship: half the DIMM slots, fewer PCIe slots, a Silver and Gold tier CPU ceiling, and a smaller power envelope, priced for scale-out deployments where the full R750 envelope is more than the workload requires.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \"xs\" suffix is widely misread. The R750xs is dual-socket-capable: it has two sockets that accept matching 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable processors. What \"xs\" signals is cost-optimized economics for workloads that often run single-socket but want the option to scale to two sockets later. It is not single-socket-only, and earlier copy (including our own) that framed it that way was wrong and is corrected here. As a 15th gen platform, the R750xs is no longer sold factory-new by Dell. Wholesale Servers stocks it refurbished and fully tested, as the cost-correct alternative to R750 flagship pricing or to stepping up to the 16th gen R760xs before the workload genuinely needs Sapphire Rapids.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo spec an R750xs build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page; we respond within 24 hours. Every unit ships after a 12+ hour burn-in that exercises every memory channel, every PCIe slot, and every drive bay, and carries our standard 180-day warranty, with 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium options available. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 8-Bay 2.5\" SFF is the canonical R750xs configuration because the platform's defining capabilities (native front-bay PCIe Gen4 NVMe via the Universal Backplane, vSAN ESA support, and mixed-protocol storage flexibility) are SFF-only. The LFF variants are SAS\/SATA only; the NVMe story lives entirely on the SFF chassis. This mirrors the SFF-canonical logic applied to the R650 and R650xs families: when the defining capability is SFF-only, the SFF variant is the reference page and the LFF variants are the capacity-specialization exceptions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere the R750xs Fits in the Family\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs sits one tier below the R750 in Dell's 15th gen 2U lineup. Same Ice Lake generation, same 2U chassis footprint, lower envelope. Against its neighbors:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evs. the R750 flagship:\u003c\/strong\u003e the R750 doubles the DIMM count to 32 slots, supports 40-core Platinum CPUs and Optane PMem, carries up to 8 PCIe Gen4 slots, and goes up to a 2400W PSU tier. The R750xs trades that headroom for roughly 15 to 30 percent lower cost per node. Choose the flagship only when the workload actually uses one of those flagship-only capabilities.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evs. the R650xs (1U pair):\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the same cost-optimized philosophy in a 1U chassis with a tighter 3-slot PCIe budget. For rack-density edge nodes that fit 1U, the R650xs is the pair-partner; for scale-out nodes that need 2U PCIe expansion, the R750xs is the answer.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evs. the 14th gen R540 (predecessor):\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eR540\u003c\/a\u003e is the Cascade Lake value 2U. The R750xs adds PCIe Gen4, Universal Backplane NVMe, 8-channel memory per socket, Ice Lake per-core gains, and vSAN ESA support.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eChassis siblings:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-nvme-build-your-own-server\"\u003e8-Bay NVMe\u003c\/a\u003e ships all bays NVMe-configured for ESA and NVMe-oF; the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e doubles SFF density; the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e are the LFF capacity variants.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eDual 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake-SP) processors on socket LGA 4189. The R750xs supports Silver and Gold tier Ice Lake SKUs up to 32 cores per socket. It does not support the top-bin Platinum 8380 (40 cores) or the other high-end Platinum SKUs; those are reserved for the R750 flagship. The 32-core-per-socket ceiling is a genuine platform validation limit, not just a thermal restriction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCommon SKU choices we see in deployment:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSilver 4314 (16 cores, 2.4 GHz, 135W):\u003c\/strong\u003e the volume entry-tier choice. Strong per-socket core count at the lower TDP, friendly to the R750xs's smaller power envelope. Most cost-primary deployments land on the Silver 4314 or 4310.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSilver 4316 (20 cores, 2.3 GHz, 150W):\u003c\/strong\u003e a little more core count, still inside the Silver TDP band.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 5318Y (24 cores, 2.1 GHz, 165W):\u003c\/strong\u003e the balanced-performance pick when 20 cores per socket is not enough but the Gold 6338 step is too much.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 6338N (32 cores, 2.2 GHz, 185W):\u003c\/strong\u003e the maximum-core R750xs configuration. The N suffix is network-optimized tuning. 32 cores per socket is 64 cores in a single 2U chassis at meaningfully lower acquisition cost than the equivalent R750 build.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eSingle-socket configurations are supported and common; it is the volume R750xs deployment pattern. Dual-socket is there when the workload scales beyond 32 cores or needs the second socket's PCIe lanes. Both sockets must carry matching CPUs; mixed-SKU dual-socket is not supported, and the second socket is not a standard field upgrade, so plan socket count at procurement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e16 DDR4 DIMM slots: 8 per CPU, one DIMM per channel, 8 memory channels per socket. This is half the DIMM count of the R750 flagship (32 slots). DDR4-3200 is supported on Gold tier and most Silver tier SKUs; lower-bin Silver may cap at 2933 MT\/s. Registered ECC DIMMs only.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaximum supported memory is 1 TB with 16 x 64 GB RDIMM, the standard production maximum for this platform. Optane PMem is not supported on the R750xs; PMem is an R750 flagship feature. The 1 DPC topology means there is no path to expand memory by adding a second DIMM per channel later; the 16 slots populated at your chosen DIMM size is the maximum, so size memory at procurement. For workloads that need more than 1 TB or Optane PMem, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 8 SFF Bays with Universal Backplane\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEight 2.5\" hot-swap front bays on the Universal Backplane. The Universal Backplane is the headline 15th gen storage capability and the R750xs's primary architectural advantage over the 14th gen R440\/R540: native PCIe Gen4 NVMe, SAS, and SATA in the same physical bays, configured at build time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe Gen4 NVMe (via Universal Backplane):\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 8 native front-bay NVMe drives at roughly 7 GB\/s sequential read per drive. Gen4 doubles Gen3 bandwidth, which matters for write-intensive databases, vSAN ESA, NVMe-oF clients, and any sub-100 microsecond latency workload. Specify NVMe at quote time; it requires the NVMe-capable backplane SKU, and not every 8-bay shipment defaults to NVMe.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSAS SSD mixed-use (1-3 DWPD):\u003c\/strong\u003e high-endurance dual-port SAS SSDs for database nodes and write-intensive applications where SAS reliability is preferred or NVMe latency is not required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSAS SSD read-intensive (0.1-1 DWPD):\u003c\/strong\u003e cost-optimized for read-dominant workloads.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSATA SSD:\u003c\/strong\u003e the lowest-cost SSD tier for VDI master images, web application servers, and read-dominant workloads.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed NVMe and SAS:\u003c\/strong\u003e some Universal Backplane SKUs partition NVMe and SAS bays in the same chassis, giving a hot NVMe tier alongside a warm SAS tier.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eBOSS-S1 is the boot path on the R750xs: a PCIe add-in card carrying two mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs in hardware RAID 1. Unlike the R650, which has a built-in chassis BOSS slot, the R750xs uses the add-in BOSS-S1 card form factor; the boot capability is identical, and all 8 front bays stay available for data when BOSS-S1 carries the OS. IDSDM and internal USB are also available for hypervisor boot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755 (8 GB flash-backed cache):\u003c\/strong\u003e our recommendation for production SAS\/SATA storage with write workloads, and the standard R750xs hardware RAID controller. NVMe drives in the same chassis connect directly and do not pass through the H755.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745 (4 GB flash-backed cache):\u003c\/strong\u003e the mid-tier choice for read-dominant SAS\/SATA workloads.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H355 \/ H345:\u003c\/strong\u003e entry-tier RAID for cost-sensitive builds. These are RAID 0, 1, and 10 only. They do not do RAID 5 or RAID 6; for parity RAID, the H755 or H745 is required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i (pass-through):\u003c\/strong\u003e required for vSAN ESA, Ceph, ZFS, and software-defined storage. Presents drives directly to the OS with no RAID controller in the data path.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eS150 software RAID:\u003c\/strong\u003e chipset-level software RAID, for very entry-tier configurations only.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eProcessors and Memory Footnote\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth sockets share the 8-channel Ice Lake memory topology described above; a single-socket build populates only 8 of the 16 DIMM slots and halves both memory bandwidth and capacity. If a single-socket node is likely to grow, populate it with that future second socket's memory plan in mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs uses OCP NIC 3.0, the 15th gen networking shift away from the rNDC mezzanine of the 13th and 14th gen platforms. One OCP 3.0 slot plus the PCIe Gen4 expansion slots. For production 2U deployments 25 GbE is the standard recommendation; even the R750xs's lower compute envelope can saturate 10 GbE under concurrent storage and application load.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 25 GbE SFP28 (OCP 3.0):\u003c\/strong\u003e standard for production R750xs deployments. Broadcom BCM57414 and NVIDIA ConnectX-5 variants both qualified.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 100 GbE QSFP28:\u003c\/strong\u003e for NVMe-heavy or storage-serving configurations where aggregate throughput justifies 100 GbE.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual or quad-port 10 GbE SFP+:\u003c\/strong\u003e legacy compatibility and VLAN segmentation.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eQuad-port 1 GbE RJ45:\u003c\/strong\u003e management and lower-bandwidth deployments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePCIe expansion is up to 6 slots: 5 PCIe Gen4 plus 1 PCIe Gen3, all low-profile, per Dell's R750xs technical guide. That is fewer than the R750 flagship's up to 8 Gen4 slots and reflects the value-tier positioning. The 6-slot budget covers most R750xs profiles: a dual-port 25 GbE OCP, a dedicated HBA, an optional GPU, and a spare. SNAP I\/O support lets some adapters run low-profile without consuming an additional connector, useful for high-port-density network builds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs is not a GPU-compute platform, and it is worth being plain about that before a buyer specs one for the wrong job. The 2U chassis and the value-tier power and PCIe budget support up to two single-width 75W accelerators (NVIDIA T4, A2, or L4) for light inference, VDI acceleration, or transcode. There is no headroom for double-width 300W+ training GPUs. For serious GPU compute, the R750 or the purpose-built R750xa is the right platform; the R750xa carries the multi-GPU thermal and power design the xs intentionally omits to hit its price point.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9 Generation\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eiDRAC9 Enterprise is the production recommendation. This is the enhanced 15th gen iDRAC9 shared with the R650 and R750: improved NVMe monitoring at Gen4 speeds, Active Health System, Secured Component Verification, iDRAC Direct via front-panel micro-USB, and Quick Sync 2.0. A hardware Silicon Root of Trust validates firmware at boot, with Secure Boot, signed firmware updates, and System Lockdown on the Enterprise and Datacenter tiers. TPM 2.0 is standard, and the Lifecycle Controller handles agent-free deployment and firmware management.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs supports a wider low-end PSU range than the R750 flagship, reflecting its lower draw. Available tiers are 600W, 800W, 1100W, and 1400W Platinum or Titanium. The 600W option is R750xs-specific; the R750 flagship does not offer it, and the flagship's 2400W tier is not available here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWorkload Profile\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical Draw\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU Recommendation\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLight: single Silver CPU, modest memory, half-populated drives\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e150-250W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 600W or 800W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBalanced: dual Gold CPU, 256-512 GB memory, full 8 SAS SSD or NVMe\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e300-500W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1100W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeavy: dual Gold 6338N, 1 TB memory, full NVMe, dedicated HBA plus 100 GbE\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e450-700W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1400W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth PSUs must match; mixed wattages are not supported. Standard fans cover all R750xs CPU and storage combinations, since the 32-core TDP ceiling stays below the threshold where high-performance fans become necessary.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs and Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, standard 19-inch mount, chassis depth roughly 28 inches. Same external dimensions as the R750; verify rack depth at quote time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 slots (5 Gen4 plus 1 Gen3), all low-profile. Plan placement so Gen4 NICs and HBAs avoid the single Gen3 slot.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e strong. The 15th gen platform is well inside active Dell ProSupport coverage, and parts supply for CPUs, DIMMs, PERC controllers, PSUs, and drives is excellent.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eB21 2U sliding rail kit\u003c\/a\u003e (shared across R550 \/ R750xs \/ R760), an optional security bezel with LCD, and the BOSS-S1 boot card to keep the OS off the front bays.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e the two PSU bays sit adjacent on the R750xs rather than spread apart as on the R750, a serviceability and airflow difference rather than a functional one. The BOSS-S1 add-in card consumes one PCIe slot, so account for it in the slot budget. The second CPU socket is not a standard field upgrade.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e the R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\" is the right call when you need 15th gen platform currency (Ice Lake, PCIe Gen4, Universal Backplane NVMe, vSAN ESA capability) in a 2U dual-socket-capable chassis at meaningfully lower cost than the R750 flagship. Scale-out virtualization clusters, software-defined storage nodes, mid-density application servers, and VDI deployments where 32 cores per socket and 1 TB of memory cover the requirement are the canonical use cases. The per-node saving over the R750 is real, typically 15 to 30 percent, and it compounds at cluster sizes of 10 or more nodes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e workloads that genuinely need 40-core Platinum CPUs, more than 1 TB of memory, Optane PMem, more than 6 PCIe slots, or serious GPU compute belong on the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750 flagship\u003c\/a\u003e. If the design driver is maximum NVMe density per node, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay\u003c\/a\u003e goes to 24 Gen4 NVMe. If you want the same economics in 1U, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650xs\u003c\/a\u003e is the pair-partner.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e this is the 15th gen 2U scale-out workhorse for the buyer who wants current-generation storage architecture and Ice Lake compute without paying flagship pricing. It is the default R750xs configuration; step up to the R750 only when the deployment has a specific reason the value-tier envelope cannot cover, and step out to the LFF or higher-density SFF siblings only when the bay profile changes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere the R750xs Fits in 2026\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs launched in 2021 on the Ice Lake-SP platform and remains a current-architecture 2U server. Its successor, the 16th gen R760xs (Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids, DDR5, PCIe Gen5), is shipping, but most R750xs-class workloads do not yet saturate DDR4-3200 or PCIe Gen4, which is what makes a tested refurbished R750xs the cost-correct buy for scale-out and value-tier 2U deployments in 2026. Against the 14th gen R440\/R540 it replaces, the R750xs is a genuine generational step up in memory channels, PCIe generation, and storage architecture. The platform earns its place when you want 15th gen currency and Universal Backplane flexibility on infrastructure planned through the late 2020s, and when per-node cost is a design metric rather than an afterthought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHalf the DIMM count of the R750.\u003c\/strong\u003e 16 slots versus 32 means a 1 TB RDIMM ceiling, no 2 DPC path, and constrained expansion. Plan memory at procurement; you cannot scale it up later in the same chassis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNo Optane PMem.\u003c\/strong\u003e PMem 200-series is a flagship feature. PMem workloads belong on the R750.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCPU ceiling at 32 cores per socket.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Platinum 8380 and other top-bin Platinums are not supported. High-end compute-bound workloads belong on the R750.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBOSS-S1 is an add-in card, not a chassis slot.\u003c\/strong\u003e Functionally identical to the R650's built-in BOSS, but it consumes a PCIe slot; account for it in the slot budget.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReduced PCIe slot count.\u003c\/strong\u003e 6 slots (5 Gen4 plus 1 Gen3) versus 8 on the R750. A build with a dedicated HBA plus 100 GbE plus a GPU plus NVMe expansion can run the slot budget tight.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOne Gen3 slot in the count.\u003c\/strong\u003e Per Dell's tech guide, one of the six slots is Gen3, not Gen4. Place Gen4 NICs and HBAs accordingly.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLimited GPU support.\u003c\/strong\u003e Up to two single-width 75W cards. Not a GPU-compute platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSecond socket is not a field upgrade.\u003c\/strong\u003e Single-socket Ice Lake is supported and common, but adding the second CPU later is not a standard service. Decide socket count at procurement.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eRight for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eConsider alternatives for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eScale-out virtualization clusters (cost-per-node optimization)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed 40-core Platinum CPUs (use the R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003evSAN ESA single or dual-socket nodes (NVMe configured)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed more than 1 TB memory or Optane PMem (use the R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSoftware-defined storage nodes (Ceph, GlusterFS, ZFS)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed more than 6 PCIe slots (use the R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMedium-density VDI hosts (lower cost per seat)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGPU-heavy workloads (use the R750 or R750xa)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGeneral-purpose application servers needing 2U expansion\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1U deployments with modest expansion (use the R650xs)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNVMe SFF storage via Universal Backplane\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLFF capacity storage (use the R750xs 8-Bay or 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed all bays NVMe out of the box?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-nvme-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay NVMe\u003c\/a\u003e ships ESA-ready with every bay NVMe-configured.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed more SFF density?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e doubles the bay count on the same platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed LFF capacity drives?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e are the NL-SAS capacity variants.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed the flagship envelope?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e brings 32 DIMM slots, Platinum CPUs, and Optane.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCost-primary at 14th gen?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eR540 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the lower-cost Cascade Lake predecessor.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHPE shop?\u003c\/strong\u003e The closest HPE counterpart at this tier is the ProLiant DL380 Gen11 (2U dual-socket); we quote it on request.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTell us your workload, single or dual-socket target, NVMe versus SAS\/SATA preference, vSAN architecture if applicable, memory target, network speed requirement, and quantity. We respond within 24 hours and will quote the R750 flagship alongside it where the envelope comparison is relevant. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery Wholesale Servers R750xs ships after a 12+ hour burn-in test covering every PCIe slot, every memory channel, and every drive bay. Standard 180-day warranty included, with 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium warranty options available. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page to start a configuration.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951266750663,"sku":"B-012108","price":5040.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-25-drives-461689.png?v=1765539667"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server","title":"Dell PowerEdge R750xs 12-Bay 3.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R750xs 12-Bay 3.5\" is the maximum large-format (LFF) capacity configuration of Dell's 15th gen 2U platform: twelve 3.5\" hot-swap front bays for high-capacity NL-SAS or SATA drives, built on the dual-socket-capable Ice Lake-SP architecture but tuned for value-tier economics. Up to 240 TB raw at 12 x 20 TB NL-SAS, with current 15th gen platform support behind it. This is the R750xs variant for mid-to-large capacity workloads: production NAS, sizeable backup targets, Ceph capacity-tier OSD nodes, and bulk-storage applications where twelve LFF bays is the design driver and the full R750 flagship envelope is more than the workload needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: this R750xs is available Surplus New or Refurbished. Surplus New means genuinely unused excess inventory, never deployed, priced below Dell-direct new because it sits outside Dell's normal new-sales channel; the Wholesale Servers warranty applies either way. As a 15th gen platform, the R750xs is no longer sold factory-new by Dell, so we are straight about which condition you are quoting. Both conditions carry the same burn-in and inspection process.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo configure a build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and up. Every unit ships after a 12+ hour burn-in that exercises every drive bay, memory channel, and PCIe lane, and carries our standard 180-day warranty with optional 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium coverage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhen 12 LFF Bays Is the Right Capacity Design\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 12-Bay 3.5\" chassis is the capacity-density sweet spot of the R750xs line. It sits between the 8-Bay LFF variant (lower cost, less capacity) and the full R750 flagship (more compute and memory than a storage node usually needs).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFifty percent more capacity than the 8-Bay LFF.\u003c\/strong\u003e Twelve bays vs. eight. For deployments where 8 LFF bays runs out of room but the R750 flagship envelope is overprovisioned, the 12-Bay R750xs LFF fills the gap.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMaximum LFF capacity on the R750xs platform.\u003c\/strong\u003e 12 x 20 TB equals 240 TB raw, roughly 180 TB usable at RAID 6 with one hot spare. This is the upper bound of single-chassis spinning-disk capacity on the xs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull R750xs compute envelope underneath.\u003c\/strong\u003e Dual-socket-capable Ice Lake, 16 DIMM slots, 1 TB RDIMM max. For converged storage plus compute (Ceph with client workloads, NAS with dedup and compression, backup with an inline dedup engine), the platform underneath is doing real work, not just spinning disks.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRAID 6 is non-negotiable at this drive size.\u003c\/strong\u003e At 18 to 20 TB NL-SAS, single-drive rebuilds exceed 24 hours. RAID 5 leaves the array exposed to a second-drive failure during that window. We do not quote RAID 5 on 14 TB and larger NL-SAS without an explicit customer override.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 12 LFF Bays\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwelve 3.5\" SAS\/SATA hot-swap front bays. The 12-Bay LFF backplane is SAS\/SATA only; there is no NVMe path on this chassis. NVMe on the R750xs lives on the SFF (2.5\") variants, which carry the Universal Backplane.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNL-SAS HDD (up to 20 TB):\u003c\/strong\u003e the primary use case. 12 x 20 TB equals 240 TB raw, roughly 180 TB usable at RAID 6 with one hot spare. Excellent sequential throughput, modest random IOPS. The right drive for production NAS, backup-to-disk, and warm-tier storage at 150 to 200 TB deployment sizes.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSAS HDD (10K \/ 15K RPM):\u003c\/strong\u003e higher random IOPS at lower per-drive capacity. For workloads that need better random performance than NL-SAS without paying for SSD.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed configurations:\u003c\/strong\u003e two to four SAS SSDs in select bays as a hot tier, eight to ten NL-SAS HDDs for capacity, with OS or application-managed tiering. Useful for NAS deployments where frequently-accessed data benefits from an SSD tier.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBoot:\u003c\/strong\u003e BOSS-S1 add-in card with dual mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs keeps the OS off the front bays. All twelve LFF bays stay available for data, and boot redundancy does not consume a front bay or a RAID controller channel. IDSDM and internal USB are also available for hypervisor boot where a customer prefers it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs uses Dell's PERC 11 controller family. Controller choice is workload-driven, and on a 12-bay spinning-disk box it is the most consequential configuration decision after drive selection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755:\u003c\/strong\u003e the production hardware-RAID default. 8 GB cache, battery-backed, full RAID 0\/1\/5\/6\/10\/50\/60. This is the controller for NAS and backup targets that depend on hardware RAID 6 across large NL-SAS drives.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745:\u003c\/strong\u003e mainstream hardware RAID with RAID 5\/6 support where the H755 feature set is more than needed.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H345 \/ HBA355i:\u003c\/strong\u003e RAID 0\/1\/10 only on the H345, and pass-through (no RAID) on the HBA355i. The HBA355i is the correct choice for Ceph, ZFS, and other software-defined storage that wants direct disk access. A common field trap is quoting an H355 or H345 and expecting RAID 5\/6 from it; those cards do not do parity RAID. RAID 5\/6 requires the H755 or H745.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC S150 (software RAID):\u003c\/strong\u003e chipset-based, suitable for boot or very light workloads only. We do not quote S150 for production storage.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExternal expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e H840 and HBA355e drive external JBOD shelves where a single chassis runs out of bays.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs runs 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake-SP, 2021) on Socket LGA 4189, up to two sockets. The cost-optimized xs platform caps each socket at 32 cores, against the 40-core ceiling of the full R650\/R750.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSilver 4300 series:\u003c\/strong\u003e the value tier. Adequate for archive nodes and cold-storage targets where the CPU is mostly moving bytes between disk and network.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 5300 \/ 6300 series:\u003c\/strong\u003e the production NAS and backup default. The extra cores and clock matter when dedup, compression, or checksumming runs inline with the storage workload. A 32-core Gold 6338 is the practical top bin on the xs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSingle-socket vs. dual-socket:\u003c\/strong\u003e a single-socket build halves the memory channels and the PCIe lane budget. For a storage node that wants 16 DIMM slots populated and several PCIe cards (HBA plus high-speed NIC), the dual-socket build is usually the right call even if per-core demand is modest.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTop-bin CPUs require the high-performance heatsink. A common configuration error is ordering a high-TDP CPU with the standard heatsink, which then thermally throttles under sustained load.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs carries 16 DDR4 DIMM slots, eight channels per socket at one DIMM per channel. This is the defining value-tier delta against the full R650\/R750, which carry 32 slots at two DIMMs per channel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eType:\u003c\/strong\u003e registered ECC RDIMM only. No LRDIMM, no Intel Optane Persistent Memory on the xs. If a workload needs LRDIMM density or Optane, that is the signal to step up to the full R750.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMaximum capacity:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 TB with 16 x 64 GB RDIMM. Sufficient for the large majority of R750xs NAS, backup, and Ceph nodes.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSpeed:\u003c\/strong\u003e DDR4-3200 at one DIMM per channel. Because the xs is a 1 DPC topology, there is no two-DIMM-per-channel speed step-down to plan around; the platform runs at its rated speed when fully populated.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSizing guidance:\u003c\/strong\u003e 4 to 8 GB per Ceph OSD plus headroom (96 to 128 GB minimum for a 12-OSD node, 192 GB for well-provisioned nodes); 512 GB to 1 TB for NAS with active dedup and compression.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNetworking on the R750xs uses the OCP NIC 3.0 slot, which is the 15th gen shift away from the rack Network Daughter Card (rNDC) of 13th and 14th gen. The OCP 3.0 mezzanine does not consume a standard PCIe slot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOCP NIC 3.0 options:\u003c\/strong\u003e dual 1 GbE, dual\/quad 10 GbE, dual 25 GbE, and dual 100 GbE cards. For a 12-bay NAS or backup target, 25 GbE is the sensible baseline; 100 GbE is warranted for high-concurrency NFS\/SMB or Ceph public-network traffic.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 PCIe Gen4 slots on the xs (five Gen4 plus one Gen3), riser-dependent. On a storage node those slots typically carry the storage controller, a high-speed add-in NIC, and any external HBA for JBOD expansion.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 12-Bay LFF is a storage chassis, not a GPU platform. The riser and power budget on this configuration goes to storage controllers, networking, and external HBAs, and the front of the chassis is twelve drive bays. The 2U xs can physically host a single low-profile single-width accelerator where a storage node also runs light inference, but that is an edge case. For real GPU compute, the full R750 is the 2U GPU platform (up to two to three double-width cards); see the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\" flagship\u003c\/a\u003e or a Dell tower for GPU-oriented builds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs ships with iDRAC9 (15th gen), available in Express, Enterprise, and Datacenter tiers. Enterprise is the practical default for a production storage node: full remote console, virtual media, and the alerting that a lights-out NAS or backup target needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSecurity baseline:\u003c\/strong\u003e Silicon Root of Trust, Secure Boot, Secure Erase, and System Lockdown mode, with TPM 1.2\/2.0 options.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLifecycle Controller:\u003c\/strong\u003e agent-free firmware updates and bare-metal provisioning, with OpenManage Enterprise integration for fleets.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA fully-populated 12-bay spinning-disk box at active load sits near the upper end of the xs PSU envelope, so size the supplies to the active drive count and CPU TDP rather than to idle draw. All PSUs are hot-plug redundant Platinum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWorkload Profile\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical Draw\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU Recommendation\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLight: single Silver CPU, modest memory, idle storage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e200-300W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 800W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBalanced: dual Gold CPU, 512 GB memory, active NAS workload\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e350-550W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1100W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeavy: dual Gold CPU, 1 TB memory, 12 active HDDs plus dedup\/compression\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e450-700W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1400W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwelve active 3.5\" drives generate meaningful heat and airflow demand; the chassis fan configuration should match the drive population. Data center ambient (up to 35C \/ 95F standard) is assumed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs \u0026amp; Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, full-depth chassis. Fully loaded with twelve 20 TB NL-SAS drives the unit exceeds 70 lbs; a two-person lift is mandatory and a cable management arm is recommended for service access.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3) across the riser options, full-height and low-profile depending on riser. On this storage node the slots carry the controller, NIC, and external HBA.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e 15th gen is current; Dell ProSupport-class parts availability is strong, and the R750xs is well within its serviceable life.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the LCD bezel for at-a-glance health, and the B21 2U sliding rail kit shared across the R550\/R750xs\/R760 (see the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eR750xs B21 sliding rails\u003c\/a\u003e). A cable management arm is worth the slot on a full-depth storage node.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e the LFF backplane is SAS\/SATA only (no NVMe); BOSS-S1 is an add-in PCIe card on this platform, not an embedded module; CPU hot-plug is not supported. For NVMe, move to the SFF chassis variants.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e production NAS at mid-enterprise scale (160 to 180 TB usable at RAID 6), backup-to-disk targets for Veeam \/ Commvault \/ Veritas, Ceph capacity-tier OSD nodes at twelve OSDs per node, and archive or cold-tier storage where 15th gen platform support matters and twelve LFF bays is the design requirement. The converged case (storage node that also runs compute) is where the dual-socket Ice Lake underneath earns its keep over older or lower-end 2U LFF boxes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e if eight LFF bays is enough, the lower-cost \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the call. If you need SFF SSD or NVMe, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e are the right chassis. For 32 DIMM slots, Optane, or 40-core Platinum CPUs on an LFF storage node, step up to the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e. For cost-primary bulk storage on a shorter lifecycle, the 14th gen \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eR540 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e remains valid at lower acquisition cost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e this is the 15th gen 2U value-tier LFF platform for mid-enterprise capacity storage. It is the right buy when you want current-generation platform support and the converged compute headroom of dual-socket Ice Lake without paying for the full R750 flagship envelope. The typical customer is an IT team standardizing a NAS, backup, or Ceph capacity tier at 150 to 240 TB per node. We routinely quote it against both the R750 flagship and the 14th gen R540 so the lifecycle math, not the spec sheet alone, drives the decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eValue-tier envelope.\u003c\/strong\u003e 16 DIMM slots, 1 TB RDIMM max, 32-core CPU cap, no Optane PMem, BOSS-S1 as an add-in card, 6 PCIe slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3). If any of those is a hard constraint, the full R750 is the platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNo NVMe path on the LFF backplane.\u003c\/strong\u003e The 12-Bay 3.5\" backplane is SAS\/SATA only. For NVMe on the R750xs, the SFF chassis variants are required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLong RAID rebuilds on large drives.\u003c\/strong\u003e 18 to 20 TB NL-SAS rebuilds can exceed 24 hours. RAID 6 is mandatory at this drive size, and a hot spare is strongly recommended.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSpinning-disk performance ceiling.\u003c\/strong\u003e Twelve NL-SAS HDDs deliver strong sequential throughput but limited random IOPS, typically 200 to 300 random IOPS aggregate. Random-IOPS-at-scale workloads belong on an SFF SSD chassis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e3.5\" SAS SSD is rarely the right call.\u003c\/strong\u003e Per-TB cost is well above 2.5\" SAS SSD. If SSD is the requirement, the 8-Bay or 16-Bay 2.5\" SFF chassis is the right platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMemory ceiling limits very large dedup.\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 TB RDIMM covers most R750xs NAS workloads, but a very large dedup hash table can outgrow it. For that case the R750 12-Bay LFF (4 TB RDIMM max) is the right call.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAcoustic and weight profile.\u003c\/strong\u003e Twelve active HDDs in 2U produce real vibration and noise (data center placement only), and a full chassis exceeds 70 lbs (two-person lift).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePSU envelope tighter than the flagship.\u003c\/strong\u003e The xs tops out around 1400W vs. up to 2400W on the full R750. Generally sufficient for LFF storage with no GPU load; size PSUs at procurement to active drive count and CPU TDP.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eExcels at\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWhere to look elsewhere\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eProduction NAS \/ file serving (160-180 TB usable)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e8 LFF bays sufficient (use R750xs 8-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBackup-to-disk targets with dedup\/compression\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed SFF SSD \/ NVMe storage (use R750xs SFF variants)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCeph capacity-tier OSD nodes (12 OSDs\/node)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed the R750 flagship envelope (use R750 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eArchive \/ compliance \/ cold storage at mid scale\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCost-primary procurement (use R540 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConverged compute plus capacity storage at value pricing\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e14th gen flagship LFF (use R740xd 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEight LFF bays sufficient?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is lower cost on the same platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed SFF SSD or NVMe storage?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e carry the Universal Backplane and the NVMe path.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed the dual-socket flagship for LFF capacity?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e brings 32 DIMM slots, Optane, more PCIe, and the wider PSU envelope.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e14th gen LFF at lower cost?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eR540 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (Cascade Lake) delivers equivalent spinning-disk performance at meaningfully lower acquisition cost.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e14th gen flagship 12-Bay LFF?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r740xd-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eR740xd 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the dual-socket 14th gen flagship.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCross-vendor counterpart:\u003c\/strong\u003e the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen11 is the closest HPE 2U analog. We do not currently stock a configured DL380 Gen11 LFF page; ask and we will advise.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTell us your capacity target, workload type (NAS \/ backup \/ Ceph \/ archive \/ converged), memory target, network speed, and quantity, and whether you want it quoted Surplus New or Refurbished. We respond within 24 hours and will quote the R750xs 12-Bay against the R540 12-Bay for a generational cost comparison where it is relevant. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery Wholesale Servers R750xs ships after a 12+ hour burn-in covering every drive bay, memory channel, and PCIe slot, with a standard 180-day warranty and optional 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium coverage. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page to start a build.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951274483911,"sku":"B-012135","price":4410.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-35-drives-718103.png?v=1765539703"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server","title":"Dell PowerEdge R750xs 16-Bay 2.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R750xs 16-Bay 2.5\" is the maximum small-form-factor (SFF) density configuration of Dell's 15th gen 2U platform: sixteen 2.5\" hot-plug bays on the Universal Backplane with PCIe Gen4 NVMe support, built on the dual-socket-capable Ice Lake-SP architecture but tuned for value-tier economics. For vSAN ESA single-socket nodes, scale-out software-defined storage clusters, and high-density SFF workloads that need more than eight bays at value-tier 2U pricing, this is the R750xs configuration to evaluate first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: this R750xs is available Surplus New or Refurbished. Surplus New means genuinely unused excess inventory, never deployed, priced below Dell-direct new because it sits outside Dell's normal new-sales channel; the Wholesale Servers warranty applies either way. As a 15th gen platform, the R750xs is no longer sold factory-new by Dell, so we are straight about which condition you are quoting. Both conditions carry the same burn-in and inspection process.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo configure a build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and up. Every unit ships after a 12+ hour burn-in that exercises every drive bay, memory channel, and PCIe lane, and carries our standard 180-day warranty with optional 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium coverage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhen 16 SFF Bays Is the Right Density\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 16-Bay 2.5\" is the high-density SFF configuration of the R750xs line, doubling the bay count of the 8-Bay 2.5\" while keeping the value-tier compute envelope. It is the chassis to reach for when per-node storage density is the design variable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDouble the SFF bay count.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sixteen bays vs. eight on the 8-Bay 2.5\". For storage-density workloads on the R750xs platform, this is the variant that matters.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eUniversal Backplane NVMe scales with bay count.\u003c\/strong\u003e Up to sixteen PCIe Gen4 NVMe drives per node in an all-NVMe build. Exact NVMe-capable bay count is backplane-SKU dependent on the xs, so specify the NVMe configuration at quote time and we will confirm the backplane that delivers it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN ESA per-node density.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sixteen NVMe drives in a value-tier 2U chassis is a compelling vSAN ESA building block for clusters where per-node cost matters and the full R750 flagship envelope is more than the workload needs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe slot budget unchanged from the 8-Bay.\u003c\/strong\u003e Same 6-slot PCIe envelope (five Gen4 plus one Gen3). Storage density doubles; PCIe expansion does not, which makes the slot layout the thing to plan at high density.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePSU envelope steps up at full population.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sixteen active drives plus dual Gold CPUs plus 100 GbE pushes the xs into the 1400W PSU tier as standard, against the 800W to 1100W typical on the 8-Bay.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 16 SFF Bays with Universal Backplane\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSixteen 2.5\" hot-swap bays supporting SAS, SATA, or NVMe through the Universal Backplane. This NVMe-on-SFF capability is the reason the SFF chassis, not the LFF, is the vSAN ESA and software-defined-storage platform in the R750xs line. Common 16-Bay configurations:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN ESA all-flash (16 NVMe):\u003c\/strong\u003e single-socket-optimized ESA node at maximum NVMe density on the xs. HBA355i pass-through, 100 GbE recommended for high-density ESA (25 GbE acceptable on smaller cluster designs), vSphere 8.x ESA required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN OSA hybrid (SAS SSD plus HDD):\u003c\/strong\u003e two to four SAS SSD cache drives plus twelve to fourteen NL-SAS capacity drives in OSA disk groups. vSphere 7.x and 8.x both supported.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAll-SAS SSD database storage:\u003c\/strong\u003e sixteen SAS SSDs at RAID 10 gives eight drives usable at maximum write endurance. For SQL Server, Oracle, and PostgreSQL where local SSD capacity is the requirement and value-tier economics make sense.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed NVMe plus SAS:\u003c\/strong\u003e some Universal Backplane SKUs partition NVMe and SAS bays, giving a hot NVMe tier and a warm SAS tier in one chassis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCeph all-SSD OSD nodes:\u003c\/strong\u003e sixteen SAS SSDs as Ceph OSDs on HBA355i pass-through, Bluestore, 128 to 256 GB memory.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBoot:\u003c\/strong\u003e BOSS-S1 add-in card with dual mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs keeps the OS off the front bays, so all sixteen front bays stay available for data and boot redundancy does not consume a bay or a controller channel. IDSDM and internal USB are also available for hypervisor boot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs uses Dell's PERC 11 controller family. At sixteen bays the controller decision is workload-defining, because the all-NVMe and software-defined paths want pass-through while the hardware-RAID paths want a cached controller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i (pass-through):\u003c\/strong\u003e the correct choice for vSAN ESA, Ceph, ZFS, and any software-defined stack that manages disks directly. No RAID; the storage layer owns the drives. This is the default for the ESA and SDS use cases above.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755:\u003c\/strong\u003e the production hardware-RAID controller. 8 GB cache, battery-backed, full RAID 0\/1\/5\/6\/10\/50\/60. For all-SAS-SSD database arrays and RAID-protected SFF pools.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745:\u003c\/strong\u003e mainstream hardware RAID with RAID 5\/6 where the H755 is more than needed.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H345:\u003c\/strong\u003e RAID 0\/1\/10 only. A common field trap is quoting an H355 or H345 and expecting parity RAID; those cards do not do RAID 5\/6. RAID 5\/6 requires the H755 or H745.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC S150 (software RAID):\u003c\/strong\u003e chipset-based, boot or light workloads only. We do not quote S150 for production storage.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVMe note:\u003c\/strong\u003e direct-attached NVMe bays connect to the CPU PCIe lanes through the backplane rather than through a PERC; the HBA355i covers the SAS\/SATA bays in mixed builds.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs runs 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake-SP, 2021) on Socket LGA 4189, up to two sockets. The cost-optimized xs platform caps each socket at 32 cores, against the 40-core ceiling of the full R650\/R750.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSilver 4300 series:\u003c\/strong\u003e the value tier, adequate where the node is storage-first and the CPU is mostly servicing IO.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 5300 \/ 6300 series:\u003c\/strong\u003e the production default for ESA, SDS, and database nodes. A 32-core Gold 6338 (or the network-optimized 6338N) is the practical top bin on the xs; the extra cores and clock matter when the storage layer runs checksumming, erasure coding, or dedup.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSingle-socket vs. dual-socket:\u003c\/strong\u003e a single-socket build halves the memory channels and the PCIe lane budget. At sixteen drives plus an HBA plus 100 GbE, a single socket runs short of lanes; the dual-socket build is usually the right call at this density even when per-core demand is modest.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTop-bin CPUs require the high-performance heatsink. Ordering a high-TDP CPU with the standard heatsink is a common configuration error that thermally throttles the part under sustained load.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs carries 16 DDR4 DIMM slots, eight channels per socket at one DIMM per channel. This is the defining value-tier delta against the full R650\/R750, which carry 32 slots at two DIMMs per channel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eType:\u003c\/strong\u003e registered ECC RDIMM only. No LRDIMM, no Intel Optane Persistent Memory on the xs. If a workload needs LRDIMM density or Optane, that is the signal to step up to the full R750.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMaximum capacity:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 TB with 16 x 64 GB RDIMM. Sufficient for most ESA, SDS, and high-density SFF nodes.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSpeed:\u003c\/strong\u003e DDR4-3200 at one DIMM per channel. The 1 DPC topology means there is no two-DIMM-per-channel speed step-down to plan around; the platform runs at rated speed when fully populated.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSizing guidance:\u003c\/strong\u003e 128 to 256 GB for Ceph all-SSD OSD nodes; for vSAN ESA, follow the cluster's per-node RAM sizing for the working set and dedup\/compression overhead.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNetworking on the R750xs uses the OCP NIC 3.0 slot, the 15th gen shift away from the rack Network Daughter Card (rNDC) of 13th and 14th gen. The OCP 3.0 mezzanine does not consume a standard PCIe slot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOCP NIC 3.0 options:\u003c\/strong\u003e dual 1 GbE, dual\/quad 10 GbE, dual 25 GbE, and dual 100 GbE. For a fully-loaded ESA node, 100 GbE is the right baseline; 25 GbE suits smaller cluster designs and the OSA hybrid configurations.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 PCIe Gen4 slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3), riser-dependent. At sixteen bays the slot budget is the binding constraint: an HBA, a high-speed add-in NIC, and any additional card compete for the same six slots, so plan the layout at design time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 16-Bay 2.5\" is a storage-density chassis, and at full population the PCIe slot and power budget is committed to storage and networking rather than accelerators. The 2U xs can host a single low-profile single-width GPU where a node also runs light inference, but a high-density storage node rarely has the slot or power headroom to spare. For GPU compute, the full R750 is the 2U GPU platform (up to two to three double-width cards); see the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750 16-Bay 2.5\" flagship\u003c\/a\u003e or a Dell tower for GPU-oriented builds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs ships with iDRAC9 (15th gen) in Express, Enterprise, and Datacenter tiers. Enterprise is the practical default for a lights-out ESA or SDS node: full remote console, virtual media, and the alerting a clustered storage node needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSecurity baseline:\u003c\/strong\u003e Silicon Root of Trust, Secure Boot, Secure Erase, and System Lockdown mode, with TPM 1.2\/2.0 options.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLifecycle Controller:\u003c\/strong\u003e agent-free firmware updates and bare-metal provisioning, with OpenManage Enterprise integration for managing the cluster as a fleet.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt sixteen-bay full population the xs sits closer to its PSU envelope ceiling than the 8-Bay, so size the supplies to the active drive count, CPU TDP, and network speed rather than to idle draw. All PSUs are hot-plug redundant Platinum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWorkload Profile\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical Draw\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU Recommendation\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLight: single Silver CPU, modest memory, half-populated drives\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e200-350W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 800W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBalanced: dual Gold CPU, 512 GB memory, full 16 SAS SSDs or NVMe\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e400-650W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1100W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeavy: dual Gold 6338N, 1 TB memory, full 16 NVMe, 100 GbE, active workload\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e550-850W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1400W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 600W PSU tier is generally undersized for sixteen-bay full configurations; reserve it for 8-Bay light deployments. Data center ambient (up to 35C \/ 95F standard) is assumed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs \u0026amp; Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, full-depth chassis. Sixteen drives add roughly 5 to 8 lbs over the 8-Bay; a two-person lift is recommended for installation and a cable management arm helps service access.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3), full-height and low-profile depending on riser. The slot budget, not the chassis, is the binding constraint at sixteen-bay density.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e 15th gen is current; Dell ProSupport-class parts availability is strong and the R750xs is well within its serviceable life.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the LCD bezel for at-a-glance health, and the B21 2U sliding rail kit shared across the R550\/R750xs\/R760 (see the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eR750xs B21 sliding rails\u003c\/a\u003e). A cable management arm is worth a slot on a dense, cabled storage node.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e NVMe-capable bay count is backplane-SKU dependent (specify at quote); BOSS-S1 is an add-in PCIe card on this platform, not an embedded module; CPU hot-plug is not supported.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e single-socket vSAN ESA cluster nodes at sixteen NVMe per node, software-defined storage scale-out (Ceph, GlusterFS, commercial SDS), VDI hosts with large local SSD pools, and high-density application servers where local SSD capacity is the design variable. For mid-sized ESA clusters of roughly six to twenty-four nodes where per-node cost is a meaningful metric, this is the configuration to price first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e if eight bays is enough, the lower-cost \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e covers most deployments. For an NVMe-dedicated eight-bay node, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-nvme-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay NVMe\u003c\/a\u003e is the focused option. For LFF capacity drives, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e are the right chassis. If the requirement is genuinely bigger compute, memory, or PCIe (32 DIMM slots, Optane, 40-core Platinum), the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e this is the 15th gen 2U value-tier platform for high-density SFF storage. The 8-Bay covers most R750xs deployments; the 16-Bay earns its premium when per-node storage density is the design variable, and it is the strongest fit in the value tier for single-socket vSAN ESA and scale-out SDS. The 16-Bay is wider, not bigger; if the requirement is fundamentally more compute or memory, that is the R750 flagship, not a wider xs. The typical customer is an IT team building a cost-disciplined ESA or SDS cluster at six to twenty-four nodes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eValue-tier envelope.\u003c\/strong\u003e 16 DIMM slots, 1 TB RDIMM max, 32-core CPU cap, no Optane PMem, BOSS-S1 as an add-in card, 6 PCIe slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3). If any of those is a hard constraint, the full R750 is the platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe slot budget is the binding constraint at high density.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sixteen NVMe drives plus a dedicated HBA plus 100 GbE plus any optional card stress the six-slot envelope. Plan the PCIe layout at design time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFully-loaded ESA at sixteen NVMe needs 100 GbE.\u003c\/strong\u003e 25 GbE is undersized for a fully-populated ESA node at this density.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAggregate NVMe throughput is platform-bound, not chassis-bound.\u003c\/strong\u003e The xs single-socket-optimized PCIe lane budget means sixteen drives under maximum concurrency can run into platform-level lane limits. For sustained maximum-throughput NVMe, the R750 flagship's larger PCIe budget is the right call.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHigher full-loaded weight than the 8-Bay.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sixteen drives add roughly 5 to 8 lbs; a two-person lift is recommended.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePSU envelope tighter than the flagship.\u003c\/strong\u003e The xs tops out around 1400W vs. up to 2400W on the full R750. For any GPU plus high-density-storage combination, the PSU ceiling can be the design constraint.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eExcels at\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWhere to look elsewhere\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003evSAN ESA single-socket nodes (16 NVMe\/node)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e8 bays sufficient (use R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\", lower cost)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHigh-density SFF storage at value-tier economics\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLFF capacity drives required (use R750xs 8-Bay or 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSDS scale-out clusters (Ceph, GlusterFS, commercial SDS)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed the R750 flagship envelope (memory\/CPU\/PCIe)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVDI hosts with substantial local SSD requirement\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed 24 NVMe bays (use R750 24-Bay 2.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApplication servers with large local SSD pools\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGPU-heavy workloads (use the full R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDo not need sixteen bays?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the lower-cost primary configuration.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed an NVMe-dedicated eight-bay?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-nvme-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay NVMe\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed LFF capacity drives?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-12-bay-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003e12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed 32 DIMM slots, Optane, or 40-core Platinum?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e flagship.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed 24-bay NVMe density?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (flagship territory).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e14th gen at lower cost?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r740-16-bay-2-5-chassis\"\u003eR740 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (Cascade Lake, PCIe Gen3, no Universal Backplane and no ESA path) is valid where 14th gen-class storage performance is acceptable.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCross-vendor counterpart:\u003c\/strong\u003e the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen11 is the closest HPE 2U analog. We do not currently stock a configured DL380 Gen11 SFF page; ask and we will advise.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTell us your workload (vSAN ESA architecture, SDS platform, VDI density, application requirement), drive type and quantity, memory target, network speed, server quantity, and whether you want it quoted Surplus New or Refurbished. We respond within 24 hours. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery Wholesale Servers R750xs ships after a 12+ hour burn-in covering every PCIe slot, every memory channel, and every drive bay, with a standard 180-day warranty and optional 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium coverage. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page to start a build.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951276581063,"sku":"BP-013552","price":5292.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-25-drives-255058.png?v=1765539691"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-nvme-build-your-own-server","title":"Dell PowerEdge R750xs 8-Bay NVMe Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R750xs 8-Bay NVMe is the all-flash specialty configuration of Dell's 15th gen 2U platform: eight 2.5\" front bays running as native PCIe Gen4 NVMe through the Universal Backplane in NVMe mode, every bay backed by Gen4 bandwidth, on the dual-socket-capable Ice Lake-SP architecture with 16 DIMM slots. This is the R750xs to reach for when NVMe storage performance is the primary design driver: vSAN ESA single-socket nodes, NVMe-oF target nodes, distributed NVMe storage at scale-out economics, and database platforms where sub-100 microsecond storage latency is the requirement at value-tier 2U pricing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: this R750xs is available Surplus New or Refurbished. Surplus New means genuinely unused excess inventory, never deployed, priced below Dell-direct new because it sits outside Dell's normal new-sales channel; the Wholesale Servers warranty applies either way. As a 15th gen platform, the R750xs is no longer sold factory-new by Dell, so we are straight about which condition you are quoting. Both conditions carry the same burn-in and inspection process.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo configure a build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and up. Every unit ships after a 12+ hour burn-in that exercises every NVMe drive bay, memory channel, and PCIe lane, and carries our standard 180-day warranty with optional 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium coverage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhen All-NVMe Is the Right Call\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis variant is the same R750xs chassis as the 8-Bay 2.5\", with the Universal Backplane explicitly configured for all-NVMe operation rather than the mixed-protocol flexibility of the SAS\/SATA build. It is procured when the buyer has decided up front that NVMe is the storage tier.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEvery bay PCIe Gen4 NVMe-configured.\u003c\/strong\u003e The hardware is the same Universal Backplane; the build-time configuration is the difference. The 8-Bay 2.5\" typically ships SAS\/SATA-configured for mixed-protocol flexibility; this variant ships all-NVMe.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN ESA-ready out of the box.\u003c\/strong\u003e ESA wants all-NVMe; this configuration ships ESA-ready with no protocol conversion needed.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePre-configured for NVMe pass-through.\u003c\/strong\u003e The HBA355i is the standard controller, and the NVMe drives present directly to the OS with no RAID controller in the data path.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNetworking assumption is more aggressive.\u003c\/strong\u003e Eight Gen4 NVMe drives generate throughput that 10 GbE cannot surface. 25 GbE is the minimum baseline; 100 GbE for NVMe-oF or high-concurrency ESA.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 8 Native PCIe Gen4 NVMe Bays\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEight U.2 NVMe SSDs on the Universal Backplane in NVMe mode, each bay at PCIe Gen4 bandwidth (7+ GB\/s sequential read per drive). Aggregate sequential read at full population is 56+ GB\/s theoretical, limited in practice by PCIe fabric layout, the network ceiling, and application concurrency.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eNVMe drive selection\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed-use NVMe (1-3 DWPD):\u003c\/strong\u003e for the vSAN ESA write tier, write-intensive databases, NVMe-oF targets, and Ceph bluestore. Do not use read-intensive drives for write-heavy workloads; the endurance mismatch causes premature wear and unexpected failures.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRead-intensive NVMe (0.1-1 DWPD):\u003c\/strong\u003e for the ESA capacity tier, read-dominant databases, distributed object storage, and read-heavy application workloads. Lower cost per TB at equivalent read performance.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCapacity selection:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, 6.4 TB, and 7.68 TB U.2 NVMe drives all qualify, with 15.36 TB qualified on most generations. Match capacity to IOPS density: 8 x 1.6 TB gives 12.8 TB at higher per-drive IOPS, 8 x 7.68 TB gives 61 TB at lower IOPS density.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery NVMe drive we ship is assessed for remaining endurance via SMART before shipment. Drives with significant endurance consumption are disclosed and priced accordingly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCommon storage architectures\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN ESA:\u003c\/strong\u003e eight Gen4 NVMe drives in a unified ESA storage pool per node, HBA355i pass-through, vSphere 8.x required, 25 GbE minimum and 100 GbE recommended.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVMe-oF target:\u003c\/strong\u003e eight Gen4 NVMe drives served to client hosts over RoCE or TCP fabric, with 100 GbE or InfiniBand for the fabric.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCeph all-NVMe OSD node:\u003c\/strong\u003e eight Gen4 NVMe OSDs per node, Bluestore on HBA355i pass-through, 128 to 256 GB memory.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDirect-attached database tier:\u003c\/strong\u003e eight NVMe drives presented to SQL Server, Oracle, or PostgreSQL with mdadm or Storage Spaces software RAID, for sub-100 microsecond latency on transaction logs and active tablespaces.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBoot:\u003c\/strong\u003e BOSS-S1 add-in card with dual mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs keeps the OS off the front bays, so all eight NVMe bays stay available for data. IDSDM and internal USB are also available for hypervisor boot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn an all-NVMe node the controller story is deliberately simple: the drives want to talk to the CPU PCIe lanes directly, and the storage redundancy lives in software.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i (pass-through):\u003c\/strong\u003e the standard controller on this variant and the correct choice for vSAN ESA, Ceph, ZFS, and any software-defined NVMe stack. No RAID; the storage layer owns the drives.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDirect NVMe attach:\u003c\/strong\u003e the U.2 NVMe bays connect to the CPU PCIe lanes through the backplane, not through a PERC, which is what delivers the Gen4 latency profile.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHardware NVMe RAID is rarely the right call.\u003c\/strong\u003e Software-defined redundancy (vSAN, Ceph, ZFS, mdadm) generally outperforms a hardware NVMe RAID controller on this class of workload. We quote PERC 11 hardware RAID (H755 \/ H745) only where a customer specifically needs SAS\/SATA RAID alongside, which is not the all-NVMe use case.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs runs 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake-SP, 2021) on Socket LGA 4189, up to two sockets. The cost-optimized xs platform caps each socket at 32 cores, against the 40-core ceiling of the full R650\/R750.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSilver 4300 series:\u003c\/strong\u003e the value tier, adequate for read-dominant NVMe nodes where the CPU is mostly servicing IO.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 5300 \/ 6300 series:\u003c\/strong\u003e the production default for ESA, NVMe-oF, and database nodes. A 32-core Gold 6338 (or the network-optimized 6338N) is the practical top bin on the xs; the cores matter when the storage layer runs erasure coding, checksumming, or compression in the data path.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSingle-socket vs. dual-socket:\u003c\/strong\u003e a single socket covers most mid-sized NVMe database and edge nodes. Step to dual-socket when the node needs the full sixteen DIMM slots and the extra PCIe lanes for 100 GbE plus a dedicated HBA.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTop-bin CPUs require the high-performance heatsink. Ordering a high-TDP CPU with the standard heatsink is a common configuration error that thermally throttles the part under sustained load.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs carries 16 DDR4 DIMM slots, eight channels per socket at one DIMM per channel. This is the defining value-tier delta against the full R650\/R750, which carry 32 slots at two DIMMs per channel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eType:\u003c\/strong\u003e registered ECC RDIMM only. No LRDIMM, no Intel Optane Persistent Memory on the xs. If a workload needs LRDIMM density or Optane, that is the signal to step up to the full R750.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMaximum capacity:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 TB with 16 x 64 GB RDIMM. Sufficient for most ESA, NVMe-oF, and NVMe database nodes.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSpeed:\u003c\/strong\u003e DDR4-3200 at one DIMM per channel. The 1 DPC topology means there is no two-DIMM-per-channel speed step-down to plan around; the platform runs at rated speed when fully populated.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSizing guidance:\u003c\/strong\u003e 128 to 256 GB for Ceph all-NVMe OSD nodes; for vSAN ESA, follow the cluster's per-node RAM sizing for the working set plus dedup and compression overhead.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn an all-NVMe node the network is the storage performance ceiling for most deployments, so the NIC choice is a first-order decision. Networking uses the OCP NIC 3.0 slot, the 15th gen shift away from the rack Network Daughter Card (rNDC) of 13th and 14th gen, and it does not consume a standard PCIe slot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 25 GbE SFP28 (OCP 3.0):\u003c\/strong\u003e the minimum recommendation, acceptable for ESA clusters with moderate east-west traffic and modest client-facing demand.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 100 GbE QSFP28:\u003c\/strong\u003e the standard for NVMe-oF targets and high-concurrency ESA, and the right answer wherever NVMe latency and aggregate throughput both matter.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 200 GbE (where qualified):\u003c\/strong\u003e specialty configurations for the most demanding NVMe-oF or HPC storage targets.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 PCIe Gen4 slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3), riser-dependent. On an NVMe node the slots typically carry the high-speed NIC and the HBA, leaving room for a fabric card on the dual-socket build.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 8-Bay NVMe is a storage-performance chassis, not a GPU platform; the PCIe and power budget here is committed to NVMe and high-speed networking. The 2U xs can host a single low-profile single-width accelerator where a node also runs light inference alongside storage, but that is an edge case. For GPU compute, the full R750 is the 2U GPU platform (up to two to three double-width cards); see the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e flagship line or a Dell tower for GPU-oriented builds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe R750xs ships with iDRAC9 (15th gen) in Express, Enterprise, and Datacenter tiers. Enterprise is the practical default for a clustered NVMe storage node: full remote console, virtual media, and the alerting a lights-out node needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSecurity baseline:\u003c\/strong\u003e Silicon Root of Trust, Secure Boot, Secure Erase, and System Lockdown mode, with TPM 1.2\/2.0 options.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLifecycle Controller:\u003c\/strong\u003e agent-free firmware updates and bare-metal provisioning, with OpenManage Enterprise integration for managing the cluster as a fleet.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNVMe configurations draw less power than equivalent spinning-disk builds, so the 800W and 1100W tiers cover most R750xs NVMe deployments. All PSUs are hot-plug redundant Platinum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWorkload Profile\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical Draw\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU Recommendation\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLight: single Silver CPU, modest memory, 4 NVMe populated\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e200-300W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 800W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBalanced: dual Gold CPU, 512 GB memory, full 8 NVMe plus 25 GbE\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e300-450W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1100W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeavy: dual Gold 6338N, 1 TB memory, 8 high-endurance NVMe plus 100 GbE\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e450-650W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1400W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lower-power NVMe profile is not a license to drop PSU redundancy; redundant Platinum PSUs are the production standard. Data center ambient (up to 35C \/ 95F standard) is assumed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs \u0026amp; Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, full-depth chassis. An all-NVMe build is lighter than a spinning-disk chassis; standard rack handling applies, and a cable management arm helps on the cabled, high-speed-networked node.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e up to 6 slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3), full-height and low-profile depending on riser. On the NVMe node the slots carry the NIC and HBA.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e 15th gen is current; Dell ProSupport-class parts availability is strong and the R750xs is well within its serviceable life.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the LCD bezel for at-a-glance health, and the B21 2U sliding rail kit shared across the R550\/R750xs\/R760 (see the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eR750xs B21 sliding rails\u003c\/a\u003e). A cable management arm is worth a slot on a 100 GbE node.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e NVMe bays connect to CPU PCIe lanes through the backplane (no PERC in the NVMe data path); BOSS-S1 is an add-in PCIe card on this platform, not an embedded module; CPU hot-plug is not supported.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e single-socket vSAN ESA nodes at eight Gen4 NVMe, NVMe-oF target nodes, distributed NVMe storage (Ceph, MinIO) at scale-out economics, local-NVMe database nodes, and Kubernetes workers needing local persistent NVMe at sub-100 microsecond latency. The headline case is ESA at eight NVMe per single-socket node, where the value-tier economics deliver real per-node savings over the R750 flagship while keeping full ESA capability.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e for more NVMe density per node, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e or the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e. For SAS\/SATA mixed-protocol flexibility, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e. For LFF capacity drives, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e. For a 1U footprint, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e. For cost-primary NVMe where Gen3 bandwidth is acceptable, the 14th gen \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r640-10-bay-nvme-chassis\"\u003eR640 10-Bay NVMe\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e this is the 15th gen 2U value-tier all-NVMe platform for scale-out and ESA deployments where per-node cost matters and eight NVMe per node is the right density. The typical customer is an IT team building a cost-disciplined ESA, NVMe-oF, or distributed-storage cluster and choosing eight high-performance drives per node over a denser, costlier flagship. Where the requirement is fundamentally more density or more compute, that is the 16-Bay xs, the R750 flagship, or the 16th-gen R760xs, not a reconfigured eight-bay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eValue-tier envelope.\u003c\/strong\u003e 16 DIMM slots, 1 TB RDIMM max, 32-core CPU cap, no Optane PMem, BOSS-S1 as an add-in card, 6 PCIe slots (five Gen4 plus one Gen3). If any of those is a hard constraint, the full R750 is the platform.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStorage performance ceiling is the network.\u003c\/strong\u003e Eight Gen4 NVMe drives can saturate 25 GbE; for NVMe-oF or aggregate-throughput deployments, plan 100 GbE from the start.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVMe drive endurance is a real procurement decision.\u003c\/strong\u003e Mixed-use (1-3 DWPD) and read-intensive (0.1-1 DWPD) drives differ significantly in cost and lifespan. Right-size endurance to the workload rather than over-buying or under-buying.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVMe wear monitoring is an operational concern.\u003c\/strong\u003e SMART data must be monitored; NVMe drives can fail without the classic SAS SSD warning patterns. Plan replacement on endurance consumption, not chassis age.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEight bays is the density ceiling on this variant.\u003c\/strong\u003e If the design needs sixteen or twenty-four NVMe per node, this is the wrong chassis; go wider on the 16-Bay xs or the R750 24-Bay.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAggregate NVMe throughput is platform-bound.\u003c\/strong\u003e The xs single-socket-optimized PCIe lane budget can limit sustained maximum-throughput NVMe under heavy concurrency; the R750 flagship's larger PCIe budget is the right call there.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eExcels at\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWhere to look elsewhere\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003evSAN ESA single-socket nodes (8 Gen4 NVMe)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed more than 8 NVMe bays (use 16-Bay R750xs or 24-Bay R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNVMe-oF targets with single-socket efficiency\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed the R750 flagship envelope\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDistributed NVMe storage at scale-out economics\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed SAS\/SATA flexibility (use 8-Bay 2.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLocal-NVMe database nodes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNeed LFF capacity drives (use 8-Bay or 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSub-100 microsecond latency at value-tier pricing\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCost-primary procurement (use 14th gen R640 10-Bay NVMe)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKubernetes workers with local NVMe\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1U deployment density (use R650xs)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed SAS\/SATA flexibility?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e runs the Universal Backplane in mixed-protocol mode.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed 16 NVMe per node?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 16-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (higher density on the same platform).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed 24 NVMe per node?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (flagship territory).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed LFF capacity drives?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (NL-SAS NAS and Ceph capacity tier).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed a 1U platform?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e (1U value-tier).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e14th gen NVMe at lower cost?\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r640-10-bay-nvme-chassis\"\u003eR640 10-Bay NVMe\u003c\/a\u003e (Cascade Lake, PCIe Gen3 NVMe).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCross-vendor counterpart:\u003c\/strong\u003e the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen11 is the closest HPE 2U analog. We do not currently stock a configured DL380 Gen11 NVMe page; ask and we will advise.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNVMe builds benefit from an upfront discussion of drive endurance, network sizing, the vSAN \/ NVMe-oF \/ Ceph architecture, memory for the software storage stack, and PCIe lane allocation. Tell us your storage architecture, drive endurance target, network speed, memory target, quantity, and whether you want it quoted Surplus New or Refurbished. We respond within 24 hours. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery Wholesale Servers R750xs ships after a 12+ hour burn-in covering every PCIe slot, every memory channel, and every NVMe drive bay, with a standard 180-day warranty and optional 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium coverage. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page to start a build.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951276548295,"sku":"BP-013556","price":4842.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-25-nvme-drives-815184.png?v=1765539691"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server","title":"Dell PowerEdge R750 16-Bay 2.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R750 16-Bay 2.5\" Hot-Swap is the general-purpose flagship configuration of Dell's 15th gen 2U rack platform: sixteen 2.5\" SAS\/SATA hot-plug bays, dual 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable sockets (Ice Lake-SP, LGA-4189), 32 DDR4-3200 DIMM slots, PCIe Gen4 throughout, and the meaningful 2U expansion budget (up to 8 PCIe Gen4 slots) that separates the R750 from the 1U R650. This is the platform where Dell's 15th gen 2U story is told, and the SFF 16-Bay is the canonical R750 configuration: enough storage for most workloads, full Ice Lake compute, and room for GPU compute, multiple HBAs, or high-speed networking that the 1U platform cannot accommodate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750 is current-production at Dell. It is not a legacy platform. Wholesale Servers stocks the R750 as a refurbished alternative to buying new R750 at full list price, or to stepping up to the 16th gen R760 (Sapphire Rapids) when the workload genuinely does not require the newer platform. For the general-purpose 2U workloads this page describes, refurbished 15th gen R750 is the cost-correct call.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 16-Bay 2.5\" SFF is the canonical R750 configuration because it covers the broadest range of R750 deployments: virtualization hosts, vSAN OSA clusters, mixed application servers, database nodes with substantial local SSD, and any workload that needs more storage than the R650 can fit but does not require the maximum-density 24-Bay variant or LFF capacity drives. The 12-Bay 3.5\" LFF is the storage-capacity companion; the 24-Bay 2.5\" is the maximum-density NVMe companion. The 16-Bay sits in the middle and is what most R750 customers actually deploy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo configure an R750 16-Bay build, call 1-800-778-1545 or request a quote through the form on this page. We respond within 24 hours, and volume pricing applies at 5 units and up. Every unit ships after a 12+ hour burn-in across every memory channel, PCIe slot, and drive bay, backed by our standard 180-day warranty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eDual 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake-SP) processors, LGA-4189 socket. The R750 supports the full Ice Lake SKU stack, including the top-bin Platinum 8380 at 40 cores and 270W TDP per socket. In dual-socket, that is 80 cores and 160 threads in a single 2U chassis. The R750's 2U thermal envelope handles high-TDP Ice Lake configurations more comfortably than the 1U R650, which makes Platinum 8380 a viable choice in the R750 where it pushes the R650's 1U cooling design.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCommon SKU choices we see in deployment:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 6338 (32 cores, 2.0 GHz, 205W):\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume balanced-performance Ice Lake. Strong per-socket core count without the Platinum cost premium. Most R750 virtualization and general-purpose deployments use Gold 6338 or 6338N.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGold 6330 (28 cores, 2.0 GHz, 205W):\u003c\/strong\u003e Slightly lower core count, same TDP envelope. Where 28 cores covers the workload, the small cost saving over 6338 adds up at quantity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSilver 4314 (16 cores, 2.4 GHz, 135W):\u003c\/strong\u003e Lower-TDP, fewer-cores option for cost-primary deployments where 32 cores in dual-socket is more than enough. Reduces power draw and thermal load.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatinum 8380 (40 cores, 2.3 GHz, 270W):\u003c\/strong\u003e Maximum-core dual-socket Ice Lake. Requires high-performance Gold-grade cooling fans and the 1400W or 2400W PSU tier. For the most demanding compute-bound workloads.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eMixed-SKU configurations are not supported. Both sockets must be populated with matching CPUs for dual-socket operation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e32 DDR4 DIMM slots: 16 per CPU, 2 DIMMs per channel, 8 memory channels per socket. The R750 has double the DIMM count of the R650 (which has 32 total) and triple the R650xs (which has 16 total). DDR4-3200 at 1 DPC; speeds step down to 2933 at 2 DPC on most Gold and Platinum SKUs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaximum supported memory:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e4 TB RDIMM dual-socket\u003c\/strong\u003e with 32 x 128 GB RDIMMs (most common high-capacity configuration).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e8 TB LRDIMM dual-socket\u003c\/strong\u003e with 32 x 256 GB LRDIMMs (specialty large-memory deployments).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e8 TB combined DDR4 + Optane PMem 200 series\u003c\/strong\u003e using 16 PMem modules alongside 16 DDR4 DIMMs in App Direct or Memory mode. Optane PMem support is one of the R750's meaningful differentiators over the R650xs and the rest of the value-tier 15th gen lineup.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor most production deployments, 256 GB to 1 TB covers the workload. Reserve 2 TB+ configurations for SAP HANA, large in-memory databases, or VDI hosts with substantial per-VM RAM requirements.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 16 SFF Bays\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen 2.5\" hot-swap front bays. The 16-Bay R750 backplane is SAS\/SATA only: it does not support PCIe Gen4 NVMe on the front bays. This is an important fact that the existing R750 16-Bay copy got wrong and is corrected here. If your workload requires native NVMe on the front bays, the 24-Bay 2.5\" variant is the configuration with NVMe-capable backplane options (16+8 NVMe, or full 24 NVMe via the NVMe-switched backplane). PCIe Gen4 NVMe expansion via add-in card on the rear PCIe slots is supported on the 16-Bay, but it is not the same as native front-bay NVMe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCommon 16-Bay configurations we see in production:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e16 x SAS SSD (mixed-use, 1-3 DWPD):\u003c\/strong\u003e The standard database and write-intensive application configuration. PERC H755 with 8 GB flash-backed cache, RAID 10 for write-heavy workloads (8 drives usable), or RAID 6 for read-balanced workloads (14 drives usable).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e16 x SAS SSD (read-intensive, 0.1-1 DWPD):\u003c\/strong\u003e Lower cost per TB. For VDI master images, read-cache tiers, and archive-tier hot data. RAID 6 typical.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed SAS SSD + NL-SAS HDD tiered:\u003c\/strong\u003e 4-6 SAS SSDs for hot tier, 10-12 NL-SAS HDDs for warm capacity. Two separate virtual drives on the PERC H755; OS tiering or application-managed tiering handles placement.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN OSA hybrid:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2-4 SAS SSD cache + 12-14 NL-SAS HDD capacity. Standard vSAN OSA disk group configuration. vSphere 7.x and 8.x both supported; vSAN ESA requires NVMe and is not the right call for this backplane configuration.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor vSAN ESA all-flash NVMe configurations, the R750 24-Bay 2.5\" is the correct chassis variant. For LFF capacity drives, the R750 12-Bay 3.5\" is the correct chassis variant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eRear Drive Bays (Optional)\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750 supports three rear chassis configurations. The 16-Bay front chassis pairs with rear configurations that include an optional 2 x 2.5\" or 4 x 2.5\" rear drive kit, trading rear PCIe slot count for additional storage:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNo rear drives:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6 full-height + 2 low-profile PCIe Gen4 slots (8 total) plus hot-plug BOSS card.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e2 x 2.5\" rear drives:\u003c\/strong\u003e 4 full-height + 2 low-profile PCIe Gen4 slots (6 total) plus hot-plug BOSS card.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e4 x 2.5\" rear drives:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2 full-height + 2 low-profile PCIe Gen4 slots (4 total) plus hot-plug BOSS card.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eRear bays are useful for OS-on-spindle separation, dedicated swap, or a small cache tier. The BOSS-S2 module is the better answer for OS boot in most cases (see below).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eRAID Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755 (8 GB flash-backed cache):\u003c\/strong\u003e Our recommendation for production SAS\/SATA storage with write workloads. Flash-backed write cache means no battery replacement cycle. RAID 0\/1\/5\/6\/10\/50\/60. The standard hardware RAID choice on the R750 16-Bay.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745 (4 GB flash-backed cache):\u003c\/strong\u003e Mid-tier alternative. For mixed or read-dominant SAS\/SATA workloads where the H755's larger cache is not justified.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H355\/H345:\u003c\/strong\u003e Entry-tier RAID for cost-sensitive SAS\/SATA configurations. RAID 0\/1\/10 only; no RAID 5\/6 cache acceleration.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i (pass-through):\u003c\/strong\u003e Required for vSAN OSA pass-through configurations, Ceph, ZFS, and any software-defined storage stack that manages its own redundancy. Presents drives directly to the OS with no RAID controller in the data path.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eS150 software RAID:\u003c\/strong\u003e Embedded software RAID at the chipset level. For very entry-tier configurations only. Not recommended for production.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBoot - BOSS-S2\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750 ships with the BOSS-S2 module in a built-in chassis slot. BOSS-S2 supports two M.2 NVMe drives in hardware RAID 1, hot-pluggable from the rear of the chassis. M.2 boot keeps the 16 front bays available entirely for data. BOSS-S2 is the standard recommendation; we configure it on essentially every R750 we ship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePCIe Gen4 Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eUp to 8 PCIe Gen4 slots depending on riser configuration and rear-drive selection. This is the R750's most significant expansion advantage over the R650: the R650 has 3 PCIe Gen4 slots; the R750 has up to 8. For deployments that need multiple high-bandwidth devices (GPU + 100 GbE NIC + dedicated HBA + NVMe expansion), the R750 is the platform that accommodates them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePCIe Gen4 bandwidth is double Gen3 per lane. At x16, that is 32 GB\/s per slot. For Gen4 NVMe SSDs, Gen4 GPUs, and 100 GbE NICs, the bandwidth headroom matters. Mixing Gen3 cards in Gen4 slots is supported; they run at Gen3 bandwidth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750 supports GPU compute, but only on chassis configurations that do not have rear drive bays (the no-rear-drive 8-slot riser configuration is the standard GPU configuration). The 16-Bay front chassis is compatible with GPU configurations when paired with the no-rear-drive riser. Note that the 12-Bay 3.5\" LFF and rear-drive configurations explicitly do not support GPUs per Dell's documentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVIDIA A100 (PCIe Gen4, 250W or 300W TDP variants):\u003c\/strong\u003e Up to 3 double-width A100s in standard riser configurations. The premier R750 AI training and HPC GPU. Requires 1400W or 2400W PSUs depending on CPU configuration.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVIDIA H100 \/ L40 (PCIe Gen4, 350W-450W):\u003c\/strong\u003e Supported on slots 2 and 7 with dedicated 450W-capable power cables (Dell PNs CXV0X and FGTM1). High-performance fans (silver or gold grade) required. Heaviest GPU power budget; 2400W PSUs required for dual H100 configurations.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVIDIA A30 (PCIe Gen4, 165W):\u003c\/strong\u003e Inference-optimized, moderate TDP. Strong inference throughput at lower power than A100.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNVIDIA L4 \/ T4 \/ A2 (single-width, 70-72W):\u003c\/strong\u003e Up to 8 single-width GPUs in the R750 in maximum-density configurations. Multi-tenant inference, transcoding, edge AI workloads.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750xa is the GPU-specialist variant of the R750 with 4 double-width or 8 single-width GPU support optimized through dedicated GPU risers; Wholesale Servers does not currently stock the R750xa. For GPU workloads beyond what the R750 16-Bay accommodates, contact us to discuss.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNetworking\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 x OCP 3.0 mezzanine slot plus the PCIe Gen4 expansion slots for additional NICs. For 2U production workloads, 25 GbE is the standard recommendation; the storage performance and aggregate VM throughput of a fully-loaded R750 can saturate 10 GbE under concurrent load.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 25 GbE SFP28 (OCP 3.0):\u003c\/strong\u003e Standard for production R750 deployments. Broadcom BCM57414 and Mellanox\/NVIDIA ConnectX-5 variants both qualified.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDual-port 100 GbE QSFP28:\u003c\/strong\u003e For high-bandwidth applications: vSAN clusters with heavy backend traffic, NVMe-oF participants, GPU inference servers with substantial data ingest.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eQuad-port 10 GbE SFP+:\u003c\/strong\u003e Legacy compatibility, network segmentation, and dedicated management\/storage\/production VLANs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eQuad-port 1 GbE RJ45:\u003c\/strong\u003e Management networks and lower-bandwidth deployments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePower Supplies\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750 supports a wider PSU envelope than the R650, reflecting the higher power draw of dual-socket Ice Lake at 270W TDP with optional GPU loads. Available PSU tiers: 800W, 1100W, 1400W, 1800W, and 2400W Platinum or Titanium. There is no 600W option (the 600W is R650xs-specific).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWorkload Profile\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical Draw\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU Recommendation\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLight: single CPU, modest memory, no GPU, half-populated drives\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e200-350W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 800W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBalanced: dual Gold CPU, 1 TB memory, full 16 SAS SSDs, no GPU\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e400-700W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1100W or 1400W Platinum redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeavy: dual Platinum CPU, 4 TB memory, full storage, 1-3 GPUs\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e900-1800W\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2 x 1800W or 2400W Titanium redundant\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor GPU configurations specifically: dual A100 plus dual Platinum 8380 plus full memory pushes into the 2400W PSU territory. We validate every GPU configuration's power budget before shipping. Mixed PSU wattages are not supported; both PSUs must match.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eManagement \u0026amp; Security\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eiDRAC9 Enterprise required for production deployments. Enhanced over the 14th gen iDRAC9 with improved NVMe monitoring at Gen4 speeds, GPU health integration, Active Health System v3, and Secured Component Verification (factory cryptographic identity binding parts to chassis). TPM 2.0 standard. Silicon Root of Trust at boot. iDRAC Direct via front-panel micro-USB for at-the-rack management.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecurity features specifically meaningful at the 15th gen platform level: Live BIOS scanning, configuration drift detection, recovery boot images, and System Lockdown mode that prevents firmware or configuration changes outside designated maintenance windows.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs \u0026amp; Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, standard 19\" rack-mount.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eChassis depth:\u003c\/strong\u003e 28.17 inches (715.5 mm). Verify rack depth supports this; some short-depth racks will not.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCooling:\u003c\/strong\u003e Up to 6 fans. Three cooling fan tiers: standard (STD), high-performance silver (HPR SLVR), high-performance gold (HPR GOLD). Mixing fan tiers within a single chassis is not supported. Higher-TDP CPUs and GPU configurations require HPR SLVR or HPR GOLD fans.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBezel:\u003c\/strong\u003e Optional security bezel with LCD.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOperating temperature:\u003c\/strong\u003e Standard 10-35 degrees C ambient; ASHRAE A2\/A3\/A4 configurations available for higher-temperature data centers with appropriate fan selection.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R750 16-Bay 2.5\" SFF is the right call for general-purpose 2U workloads at 15th gen platform currency: virtualization hosts, mixed-workload application servers, vSAN OSA hybrid clusters, mid-density database nodes, and any deployment that needs more memory, more PCIe expansion, or higher-TDP compute than the 1U R650 can deliver. It is the configuration most R750 customers actually deploy, and the canonical reference point for the R750 platform in the Wholesale Servers catalog.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere it falls short: native PCIe Gen4 NVMe on the front bays is not available on this backplane variant (that is the 24-Bay R750's territory). For all-NVMe vSAN ESA deployments specifically, the 24-Bay 2.5\" is the correct R750 chassis. For LFF capacity drives, the 12-Bay 3.5\" is the correct R750 chassis. For 1U deployments where the 2U PCIe budget and storage capacity are not required, the R650 is the cost-correct call. For 16th gen platform currency (Sapphire Rapids, DDR5, PCIe Gen5, CXL), the R760 is the step-up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBottom line: this is the 15th gen 2U flagship most workloads should evaluate first. Step up to 24-Bay or down to 1U R650 only when the deployment has a specific reason to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eExcels at ✅\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWhere to look elsewhere ❌\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ General-purpose 2U virtualization hosts (vSphere, Hyper-V, KVM)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ All-NVMe vSAN ESA (use R750 24-Bay)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ vSAN OSA hybrid clusters (SAS SSD cache + HDD capacity)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ LFF capacity \/ NAS \/ Ceph capacity tier (use R750 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ Mid-density SAS SSD database storage (16 drives)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ 1U deployments with modest expansion needs (use R650)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ Mixed application servers needing PCIe expansion headroom\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ Single-socket-optimized economics (use R750xs)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ Workloads needing 4 TB+ memory or Optane PMem\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ DDR5 \/ Sapphire Rapids \/ PCIe Gen5 required (use R760)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ Up to 3 double-width GPUs (no rear drive configuration)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ 4+ double-width GPUs or 8 single-width (use R750xa)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e✅ Long lifecycle deployments through late 2020s\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e❌ Cost-primary procurement with 2-3 year lifecycle (consider R740 14th gen)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNo native NVMe on this backplane.\u003c\/strong\u003e The 16-Bay 2.5\" backplane is SAS\/SATA only. Existing R750 copy across the web (including our own prior copy) frequently misstates this; the 24-Bay is the NVMe-capable R750 variant.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eChassis depth is non-trivial.\u003c\/strong\u003e 28+ inches is deeper than most 14th gen R740 deployments and meaningfully deeper than 1U R650. Short-depth racks will not accommodate this chassis. Verify rack depth at quote time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGPU support is configuration-restricted.\u003c\/strong\u003e GPUs require the no-rear-drive riser configuration. Rear-drive variants of the 16-Bay R750 do not support GPUs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHigh-TDP CPU configurations require high-performance fans.\u003c\/strong\u003e Platinum 8380 (270W) and most GPU configurations require silver-grade or gold-grade high-performance cooling. Standard fans are insufficient. Acoustic profile of high-performance fans is noticeably louder; this is a data-center server, not an office-noise server.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMixed PSU wattages not supported.\u003c\/strong\u003e Both PSUs must match. Plan for the maximum-load PSU tier at procurement; you cannot mix a 1100W and 1400W later.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOptane PMem 200 series is supported but reaching end-of-life.\u003c\/strong\u003e Intel discontinued the Optane product line in 2022. Existing PMem deployments are supported through their service life, but new architectures should plan for memory tiering via CXL on 16th gen platforms instead.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003evSAN ESA on this configuration is the wrong choice.\u003c\/strong\u003e ESA wants all-NVMe; this backplane is SAS\/SATA. ESA on the R750 belongs on the 24-Bay variant, not here.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSingle-socket Ice Lake on the R750 is supported but uneconomic.\u003c\/strong\u003e The R750 is designed for dual-socket. If single-socket is the right answer, the R750xs is the configuration with single-socket-optimized economics (smaller chassis, lower PSU envelope, lower cost).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHeavy GPU configurations push 2400W PSU territory.\u003c\/strong\u003e Dual A100 or single H100 plus dual Platinum CPUs requires 2400W Titanium PSUs and dedicated power cabling. Some customer environments cannot accommodate 2400W per node. Verify rack PDU capacity at quote time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe R750 chassis is heavier than the R650.\u003c\/strong\u003e Full-loaded R750 with 16 SAS SSDs, dual PSUs, and GPU configurations exceeds 70 lbs. Two-person lift recommended for installation.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGeneration Context\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003evs. R740 (14th gen Cascade Lake 2U predecessor):\u003c\/strong\u003e The R750 is a meaningful platform step up, not a marginal refresh. PCIe Gen4 throughout (vs. Gen3 on R740), Universal Backplane backplane architecture (vs. the R740's separate backplane variants per drive type), 32 DIMM slots (vs. 24 on R740), Ice Lake processors with higher per-core performance and lower latency vs. Cascade Lake, vSAN ESA support (vs. OSA-only on R740), and active Dell ProSupport (R740 is out of mainstream support). For infrastructure planned to run through 2029-2030, the R750 is the platform. For shorter lifecycle deployments or cost-primary procurement, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r740-16-bay-2-5-chassis\"\u003eR740 16-Bay\u003c\/a\u003e remains a defensible choice; we quote both.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003evs. R760 (16th gen Sapphire Rapids successor):\u003c\/strong\u003e The R760 is the 16th gen step up: Sapphire Rapids or Emerald Rapids Xeon, DDR5 memory at 4800-5600 MT\/s, PCIe Gen5, CXL 1.1 support, and Accelerator Engines (QAT, DSA, IAA, DLB) on-die. The R760 is the right call when the workload genuinely needs DDR5 bandwidth, PCIe Gen5 NVMe, or CXL memory tiering. For most general-purpose 2U workloads, the R750 at 15th gen platform currency delivers the requirement at meaningfully lower acquisition cost. We quote both when relevant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003evs. R650 (15th gen 1U companion):\u003c\/strong\u003e Same generation, same Ice Lake processors, same PCIe Gen4 throughout. What changes in 2U: triple the PCIe slots (8 vs. 3), more drive bays, GPU support, higher TDP envelope, more thermal headroom for Platinum 8380. If your workload fits 1U and does not need PCIe expansion or GPUs, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650 8-Bay\u003c\/a\u003e is more cost-efficient. If you need 2U expansion, the R750 is the platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003evs. R750xs (15th gen single-socket-optimized 2U companion):\u003c\/strong\u003e Same 2U chassis form factor and similar storage options, but the R750xs is single-socket-optimized: 16 DIMM slots (vs. 32), lower PSU envelope, no Optane PMem, lower acquisition cost. For workloads that are genuinely single-socket and do not need 4 TB+ memory, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs\u003c\/a\u003e family is the cost-correct call. For dual-socket compute with full memory architecture and PCIe expansion, the R750 is the platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003evs. R750xa (15th gen GPU-specialist 2U companion):\u003c\/strong\u003e The R750xa is the GPU-optimized variant: up to 4 double-width or 8 single-width GPUs via dedicated GPU risers, 32 DIMM slots. Wholesale Servers does not currently stock the R750xa; for GPU workloads beyond what the R750 16-Bay accommodates (3 double-width GPUs), contact us to discuss sourcing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWithin the R750 family - chassis variants:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed NVMe-capable front bays?\u003c\/strong\u003e → \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-24-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 24-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNeed LFF capacity drives?\u003c\/strong\u003e → \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTell us your workload, vSAN architecture target (if any), GPU requirements (if any), memory target, drive count and capacity per drive, and quantity. We respond within 24 hours. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery Wholesale Servers R750 ships after a 12+ hour burn-in test covering every PCIe slot, every memory channel, and every drive bay. Standard 180-day warranty included; 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium warranty options available. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951276449991,"sku":"BP-013633","price":4090.01,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r750-16-bay-25-drives-855940.png?v=1765539691"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r550-8-bay-lff-build-your-own","title":"Dell PowerEdge R550 8-Bay 3.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R550 8-Bay 3.5\" is the large-form-factor configuration of Dell's 15th gen value-tier 2U platform: eight 3.5\" SAS\/SATA hot-plug bays, two 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake-SP, socket LGA 4189), sixteen DDR4-3200 RDIMM slots, and PCIe Gen4 throughout. It is the bulk-capacity variant of the R550 family, built for workloads that pair dual-socket Ice Lake compute with high-capacity nearline SAS storage in a single 2U chassis, without the memory ceiling, NVMe backplane, or PCIe budget of the flagship R750.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 ships either Refurbished (tested, reconditioned, previously deployed) or Surplus New, which is genuinely unused excess inventory that never entered a production deployment and sits outside Dell's normal new-sales channel; both carry the same Wholesale Servers burn-in and warranty. The R550 platform fundamentals (Ice Lake silicon, the 16-DIMM memory topology, PCIe Gen4, OCP NIC 3.0 networking, BOSS boot) are shared across all three R550 variants; this page documents them in full with the LFF storage profile as the variant-specific framing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo configure a build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page. Every Wholesale Servers R550 ships after a 12+ hour burn-in and carries a 180-day warranty, and volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhen 8 LFF Bays Is the Right Choice\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithin the R550 family there are three chassis on one shared platform: this 8-Bay 3.5\" LFF (bulk nearline capacity), the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-8-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR550 8-Bay 2.5\" SFF\u003c\/a\u003e (compute-primary, IOPS-oriented storage), and the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-16-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR550 16-Bay 2.5\" SFF\u003c\/a\u003e (maximum SFF spindle density). All three share the same system board, the same 16 DIMM slots, the same PCIe and PSU options, and the same iDRAC9 Enterprise management. The chassis decision is purely about front-bay storage profile.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 8-Bay 3.5\" is the right pick when raw capacity per chassis matters more than spindle count or IOPS. Eight LFF bays at 24 TB nearline SAS is 192 TB raw in 2U, a capacity profile the SFF variants cannot reach. The natural fits are file servers and NAS heads where the file workload also needs dual-socket compute, backup target hosts that run media-server or deduplication work alongside the capacity, branch-office consolidated hosts running virtualization on top of local LFF storage, and Ceph or ZFS capacity nodes co-located with application workloads. For IOPS-dense roles the SFF variants are the better profile; for capacity beyond eight LFF bays the step is the R750 12-Bay LFF.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 8 LFF Bays\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEight front-accessible 3.5\" LFF hot-plug bays, all SAS or SATA. \u003cstrong\u003eThe R550 backplane is SAS\/SATA only; there is no NVMe front-bay option on the R550 at any drive count.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is a chassis-level limit, not a configuration choice. Workloads needing front-bay NVMe belong on the R650, R750xs, or R750. The R550 8-Bay 3.5\" is the bulk-capacity LFF chassis in the 15th gen value slot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePractical raw capacity at 8 LFF bays:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x 20 TB nearline SAS HDD: 160 TB raw. RAID 6 strongly recommended at this per-drive capacity, roughly 120 TB usable with two parity drives.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x 24 TB nearline SAS HDD: 192 TB raw, about 144 TB usable RAID 6. The current LFF NL-SAS ceiling we stock.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x 8 TB SAS SSD: 64 TB raw. RAID 10 gives 32 TB usable (4 mirror pairs) for high-write-throughput data; RAID 6 gives about 48 TB usable for balanced read and write.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTiered mix: 2x SAS SSD as a hot tier plus 6x nearline SAS for capacity, paired with a software tiering layer (Storage Spaces, ZFS, Ceph cache tiers), is a common converged configuration.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoot stays off the front bays. BOSS-S2 carries two mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs in hardware RAID 1 on a dedicated card, keeping the operating system off the eight LFF bays and leaving all of them for data. The 15th gen BOSS-S2 uses M.2 SATA modules; the NVMe-based BOSS-N1 is a 16th gen part and is not used here. IDSDM (internal dual microSD) and an internal USB 3.0 port are also available for hypervisor boot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 uses the Dell PERC 11 controller family. Production options for the 8-Bay 3.5\":\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755.\u003c\/strong\u003e 12 Gbps SAS-3, 8 GB flash-backed write cache, full RAID 0\/1\/5\/6\/10\/50\/60. The standard production hardware-RAID controller for the 8-Bay 3.5\" and the one to specify for parity RAID on bulk NL-SAS. Wholesale Servers ships hardware-RAID R550 builds with the H755 unless you specify otherwise.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745.\u003c\/strong\u003e Lower-cache hardware-RAID alternative to the H755, also RAID 5 and RAID 6 capable. Quoted when the H755 cache budget is not needed.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i.\u003c\/strong\u003e SAS-3 pass-through, no hardware RAID. The correct controller for Ceph, ZFS, and Storage Spaces Direct, where the software layer owns redundancy.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H355 and H345.\u003c\/strong\u003e Entry hardware RAID, \u003cstrong\u003eRAID 0\/1\/10 only\u003c\/strong\u003e, no RAID 5 or 6. Appropriate for mirrored SAS SSD application data. Do not specify an H355 for a parity-RAID NL-SAS design; that is the most common controller mistake on this platform, and the H755 or H745 is the right answer.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC S150.\u003c\/strong\u003e Chipset software RAID, for dev, test, and light boot duty only, never production data.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake-SP, socket LGA 4189) on the Intel C621A chipset. The R550 is the value cut of the platform, and Dell caps its qualified SKU list at 24 cores per socket; the 32-core and 40-core Platinum SKUs are an R650 or R750 capability. This is the same value-tier discipline as the R540 versus R740 on 14th gen: Dell qualifies a subset of the SKU stack per chassis tier rather than offering the full range everywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecommended R550 CPU configurations:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eXeon Silver 4314 (16 cores, 2.4 GHz, 135W).\u003c\/strong\u003e The standard value-tier build, 32 cores and 64 threads dual-socket. Strong general-purpose virtualization and application-server fit, comfortably inside the thermal envelope.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eXeon Silver 4316 (20 cores, 2.3 GHz, 150W).\u003c\/strong\u003e More core density at a modest power increase, for VM-density-driven sizing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eXeon Gold 6326 (16 cores, 2.9 GHz, 185W).\u003c\/strong\u003e Higher per-core frequency for licensing-bound workloads (SQL Server Standard, Oracle, per-core ISV licensing), with stronger single-thread performance.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eXeon Gold 6342 (24 cores, 2.8 GHz, 230W).\u003c\/strong\u003e The R550 ceiling, 48 cores and 96 threads dual-socket. Supportable in the R550 but it narrows ASHRAE class margin, so verify against the thermal envelope at quote time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eRunning a single CPU is the most common configuration mistake on a dual-socket Ice Lake board: the R550's memory channels and part of the PCIe lane budget are split across both sockets, so a one-CPU build strands half the DIMM slots and some riser capacity. If a single socket genuinely covers the workload, the single-socket R750xs is the better-matched and lower-power chassis. Ice Lake also brings eight memory channels per socket (versus Cascade Lake's six), native PCIe Gen4, and the Sunny Cove IPC uplift, so even at equal core counts the platform is a real step over 14th gen for memory-bandwidth-bound work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen DDR4 DIMM slots, eight channels per CPU at one DIMM per channel. \u003cstrong\u003eThe R550 takes registered ECC RDIMM only. It does not support LRDIMM, and it does not support Intel Optane persistent memory.\u003c\/strong\u003e Maximum capacity is 1 TB with 16x 64 GB dual-rank RDIMM. Rated speed is DDR4-3200 at one DIMM per channel; value-tier CPU SKUs frequently run the bus at 2933, so size memory expecting 2933 to 3200 depending on the processor chosen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCommon configurations: 128 GB (8x 16 GB, one DIMM per channel on each socket), 256 GB (16x 16 GB fully populated, the most common refurbished R550 build), 512 GB (16x 32 GB), and 1 TB (16x 64 GB) at the ceiling. The 1 TB cap, and the absence of LRDIMM and Optane, is the cleanest line between the R550 and the mainstream R650 and R750 with their 32 DIMM slots and 4 TB topology. For high-density virtualization, large in-memory databases (SAP HANA, large Redis or Spark working sets), or VDI consolidation that drives memory above 1 TB, the R750 is the correct platform, and we will say so at quote time if your sizing pushes against the ceiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eNetworking on the R550 is OCP NIC 3.0, the 15th gen standard. This is the part of the platform most often described wrong in secondhand listings: the 13th and 14th gen rNDC mezzanine is gone, replaced by the OCP 3.0 slot, which does not consume a standard PCIe slot. The R550 ships with a 1 GbE management LOM for iDRAC; production networking is added through the OCP 3.0 card or a PCIe NIC. Common attaches:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2x 10 GbE SFP+ (Intel X710 or equivalent), the standard production uplink.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2x 25 GbE SFP28 (Mellanox ConnectX-5 or Intel E810) for software-defined storage backplanes and 25 GbE leaf fabrics.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4x 10 GbE Base-T (Intel X710-T4) for copper 10 GbE without SFP+ optics.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2x 32G Fibre Channel (Emulex or QLogic, PCIe Gen4) for SAN-attached block storage.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePCIe expansion is Gen4, up to roughly five slots depending on riser configuration (the value-tier riser layout is narrower than the R750's), plus a dedicated slot for the PERC controller. Gen4 doubles per-lane bandwidth over Gen3, so 25 and 100 GbE NICs and 32G FC HBAs run without slot-level saturation. For designs that need more than that slot budget (multiple HBAs plus high-speed NICs plus accelerators), the R750's eight-slot layout is the correct platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 is not a GPU platform. It is a value-tier storage-and-compute chassis: the PCIe budget, power delivery, and thermal envelope are not built for double-width accelerators, and we do not quote it for GPU compute. If the deployment needs GPUs (AI and ML inference or training, accelerated VDI, rendering), the Dell answers at this generation are the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650\u003c\/a\u003e for low-profile single-width cards or the R750 and R750xa for double-width work. GPUs specified on an R550 are a configuration we redirect at quote time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 ships with iDRAC9 (15th gen) and Lifecycle Controller. Wholesale Servers builds include iDRAC9 Enterprise unless you specify otherwise: Enterprise adds virtual console redirection, virtual media, and full SNMP and Redfish API access, which is non-negotiable for remote-site or branch hosts where OS-level recovery has to happen without on-site staff. The 15th gen security stack is present: Silicon Root of Trust, Secure Boot with system-level signing of BIOS updates, TPM 2.0 standard, and System Lockdown (requires Enterprise). iDRAC9 integrates with OpenManage Enterprise for fleet management, Ansible for infrastructure-as-code workflows, and Redfish-native monitoring. iDRAC9 is the 15th gen management generation; iDRAC10 is a later part and does not apply to the R550.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 supports up to two redundant hot-plug power supplies in a 1+1 configuration, from the shared 15th gen PSU line:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eEfficiency\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical fit\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e600W AC\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePlatinum\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSingle-CPU or Silver 4314 dual-socket, light I\/O, baseline drive population. Lowest-power R550 builds.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e800W AC\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePlatinum\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStandard dual-socket: Silver 4314 or 4316, 256 GB RAM, 8x LFF NL-SAS, 2x 10 GbE. The most common R550 PSU.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1100W AC or DC\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePlatinum \/ Titanium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHigher-TDP CPUs (Gold 6326, Gold 6342), dense SAS SSD, 25 and 100 GbE NICs. DC variant for -48V telco and colocation plant.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 does not offer the 1400W or 2400W PSUs available on the R750, consistent with its value-tier envelope. Cooling is standard front-to-rear air with up to five cold-swap fans; there is no liquid-cooling option. ASHRAE A2 (10 to 35 C) is fully supported across all configurations; A3 (to 40 C) and A4 (to 45 C) are supported with CPU TDP held at 150W or below and higher-power add-in cards restricted. Most production deployments target A2.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs \u0026amp; Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, regulatory model E75S. Standard-depth 2U chassis; budget rack depth for rear cable management.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e PCIe Gen4, up to about five slots by riser configuration, plus a dedicated PERC slot; full-height and low-profile positions depend on the riser chosen.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e Strong. 15th gen Ice Lake is current enough that PERC 11 controllers, OCP 3.0 NICs, DDR4-3200 RDIMM, BOSS-S2 modules, LFF drive carriers, and PSUs are all readily sourced, and Dell support paths remain active.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eR550 \/ R750xs \/ R760 B21 2U sliding rail kit\u003c\/a\u003e for the rack mount, an OCP 3.0 NIC sized to the uplink, and a BOSS-S2 card so boot stays off the eight LFF bays.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e SAS\/SATA LFF front bays only (no NVMe backplane), RDIMM-only memory (no LRDIMM or Optane), OCP NIC 3.0 networking, and air cooling only are the chassis facts buyers most often confirm before committing a design.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e Converged dual-socket compute plus bulk LFF capacity in 2U at 15th gen value-tier pricing. File servers and NAS heads that also need application compute, backup targets running media-server or dedupe workloads, branch-office consolidated hosts combining virtualization with local storage, Ceph or ZFS capacity nodes co-located with application workloads, and mid-tier databases at the LFF capacity tier. Eight LFF bays at up to 192 TB raw is a capacity-per-dollar profile the SFF variants and most refurbished 2U platforms cannot match.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e If memory needs to exceed 1 TB or use Optane, step to the R750 with its 32 DIMM slots. If the storage architecture needs front-bay NVMe, the R650 or R750 carry NVMe backplanes; the R550 does not. If a single Ice Lake socket covers the compute, the R750xs 8-Bay 3.5\" gives the same LFF profile at lower cost and power. If more than eight LFF bays are needed, the R750 12-Bay 3.5\" is the step up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e For a SAS\/SATA workload at 1 TB of memory or less, 24 cores per socket or fewer, and a genuine need for bulk LFF capacity alongside dual-socket compute, the R550 8-Bay 3.5\" is the cost-correct 15th gen chassis and the one we steer converged file-and-application buyers toward. When a design breaches the memory, core, or NVMe ceiling, we move the quote to the R650 or R750 and explain why. The procurement-justification summary: value-tier 2U, dual Ice Lake, eight 3.5\" SAS\/SATA bays to 192 TB raw, current-generation support, refurbished or surplus-new pricing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere the R550 Fits in 2026\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 is current-generation-adjacent hardware. 15th gen Ice Lake-SP launched in 2021 and remains under active Dell support, with the 16th gen R660 and R760 (Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids) now above it. For a value-tier 2U buyer that means two things: this is not end-of-life hardware, so a refurbished or surplus-new R550 has real production life ahead of it; and because 16th gen is shipping, 15th gen value-tier pricing on the secondary market is attractive relative to the capability you get.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst 14th gen, the R550 replaces the R540 (Skylake and Cascade Lake). The deltas are 3rd Gen Ice Lake-SP versus 2nd Gen Cascade Lake, eight memory channels per socket versus six, PCIe Gen4 versus Gen3, DDR4-3200 versus DDR4-2933, and the stronger 15th gen iDRAC9 security baseline. The R540's 12-bay LFF maximum was higher than the R550's eight LFF bays, so if the requirement exceeds eight LFF bays the R540 12-Bay or the R750 12-Bay LFF is the right platform. The R550 earns its place for SAS\/SATA workloads up to 1 TB memory and 24 cores per socket that need bulk LFF density in a current-generation value chassis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNo front-bay NVMe at any drive count. SAS\/SATA LFF backplane only. This is the hard limit that most often disqualifies the chassis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e16 DIMM slots and a 1 TB memory ceiling. No LRDIMM, no Optane PMem. Memory-bound workloads above 1 TB belong on the R650 or R750.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eValue-tier CPU range, up to 24 cores per socket; the higher-core and higher-TDP Ice Lake SKUs are an R650 or R750 capability.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEight LFF bays only. Bulk-capacity designs above eight LFF spindles need the R750 12-Bay LFF.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRoughly five Gen4 PCIe slots by riser, not the R750's eight. Not a GPU platform, and air cooling only.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eR550 8-Bay 3.5\" is appropriate for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eConsider alternatives for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConverged dual-socket compute plus LFF capacity in 2U\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSingle-socket workloads (R750xs 8-Bay 3.5\", lower cost and power)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFile servers and NAS heads with application workload colocation\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMore than 8 LFF bays needed (R750 12-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCeph or ZFS storage nodes that also run application compute\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFront-bay NVMe required (R650, R750xs, R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBranch-office or remote-site consolidated hosts (virtualization plus storage)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMemory exceeds 1 TB (R750, 32 DIMM slots)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBackup targets with media-server or deduplication workload\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMore than 24 cores per socket (R750 supports 40-core Platinum)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMid-tier database hosts (SQL Server Standard, PostgreSQL) at LFF capacity tier\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHigh-density VM consolidation needing large memory and CPU (R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMore memory, NVMe, or PCIe slots:\u003c\/strong\u003e the R750 (2U, 32 DIMM slots, NVMe backplane, eight PCIe slots) is the mainstream step up, and the R650 is the 1U equivalent.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSingle-socket LFF workload:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-3-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e matches this LFF profile with one Ice Lake socket at lower cost and power.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMore than eight LFF bays:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750-12-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR750 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e for bulk capacity beyond this chassis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrevious generation, budget-led:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eDell PowerEdge R540 12-Bay 3.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the 14th gen value-tier 2U LFF predecessor (Skylake and Cascade Lake, rNDC networking) at a lower price point where 15th gen features are not required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHPE equivalent:\u003c\/strong\u003e the closest HPE counterpart at this tier is the ProLiant DL380 Gen11 in its value configuration; we name it for cross-shopping but do not currently stock it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTell us your workload, your memory and storage targets, your CPU preference (or a workload description so we can recommend a SKU), your storage architecture (hardware RAID on a PERC H755 versus pass-through on an HBA355i for software-defined storage), your drive mix (nearline SAS capacity, SAS SSD, or a tiered combination), your network uplink (10, 25, or 100 GbE on the OCP card), and quantity. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above, and we respond within 24 hours. Every Wholesale Servers Dell PowerEdge R550 ships after a 12+ hour burn-in across every PCIe slot, memory channel, and drive bay, with a 180-day warranty included and 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year options available. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf your memory or storage requirements push against the R550 ceiling, we will quote the R750 alongside; for borderline sizings the modest premium for the R750 is frequently the better long-term call, and we will say so directly. If a single Ice Lake socket covers your compute, we will put the R750xs 8-Bay 3.5\" next to it so you can compare on total cost of ownership rather than acquisition price alone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951277301959,"sku":"BP-013639","price":4388.84,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r550-8-bay-35-drives-516383.png?v=1765539695"},{"product_id":"dell-poweredge-r550-8-bay-build-your-own","title":"Dell PowerEdge R550 8-Bay 2.5\" Drives [15th Gen]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dell PowerEdge R550 8-Bay 2.5\" is the compute-primary SFF configuration of Dell's 15th gen value-tier 2U platform: eight 2.5\" SAS\/SATA hot-plug bays, two 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake-SP, socket LGA 4189), sixteen DDR4-3200 RDIMM slots, and PCIe Gen4 throughout. It is the R550 variant for workloads where dual-socket Ice Lake compute is the primary requirement and local storage is a supporting role rather than the center of gravity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis page documents the R550 platform in full with the compute-primary SFF profile as the variant-specific framing; the two companion variants, the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-8-bay-lff-build-your-own\"\u003eR550 8-Bay 3.5\" LFF\u003c\/a\u003e (bulk capacity) and the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-16-bay-build-your-own\"\u003eR550 16-Bay 2.5\" SFF\u003c\/a\u003e (maximum density), share the same board, memory topology, PCIe budget, and management. The R550 ships either Refurbished (tested, reconditioned, previously deployed) or Surplus New, which is genuinely unused excess inventory that never entered a production deployment and sits outside Dell's normal new-sales channel; both carry the same Wholesale Servers burn-in and warranty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo configure a build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page. Every Wholesale Servers R550 ships after a 12+ hour burn-in and carries a 180-day warranty, and volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhen 8 SFF Bays Is the Right Choice\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 8-Bay 2.5\" SFF is the compute-primary variant of the R550 family. Its front bays take 2.5\" drives only (SAS SSD, SAS HDD typically 1.2 TB to 2.4 TB, SATA SSD), not 3.5\" LFF nearline drives, so it is the right pick when storage is IOPS-oriented and modest in footprint rather than capacity-bound. It runs at half the density of the 16-Bay, which keeps acquisition cost and airflow load down: if a workload genuinely needs eight SFF bays and no more, paying for the 16-Bay backplane is paying for capability it will not use.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf the three R550 chassis this one carries the lowest acquisition cost, which makes it the most economical entry to dual-socket Ice Lake when the workload is CPU-and-memory-primary. Application servers on shared SAN storage, Kubernetes workers with persistent volumes on external storage, database hosts whose data files live on SAN or NFS, and virtualization hosts running VMs on shared datastores are the natural patterns. When storage is the headline rather than the supporting cast, the LFF variant (bulk capacity) or the 16-Bay (SFF density) earns its premium.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage - 8 SFF Bays\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEight 2.5\" SAS\/SATA hot-swap bays. \u003cstrong\u003eThe R550 backplane is SAS\/SATA only; there is no NVMe front-bay option on the R550 at any drive count.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is a chassis-level limit, not a configuration choice. Workloads needing front-bay NVMe belong on the R650, the R750xs NVMe variant, or the R750.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePractical raw capacity at 8 SFF bays:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x 2.4 TB 10K SAS HDD: 19.2 TB raw. RAID 10 gives 9.6 TB usable for general application data; RAID 6 gives 12 TB usable for read-heavy work at higher resilience.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x 3.84 TB SAS SSD: 30.72 TB raw. RAID 10 gives 15.36 TB usable for write-intensive application or database tiers; RAID 6 gives about 23 TB.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x 7.68 TB SAS SSD: 61.44 TB raw, the current SFF SAS SSD ceiling we stock. RAID 6 yields about 46 TB usable.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMixed: 2x SAS SSD (RAID 1 for OS or hot data) plus 6x 10K SAS HDD (RAID 6 capacity tier) is a common cost-optimized application-server build.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoot stays off the front bays. BOSS-S2 carries two mirrored M.2 SATA SSDs in hardware RAID 1 on a dedicated card, leaving all eight front bays for data. The 15th gen BOSS-S2 uses M.2 SATA modules; the NVMe-based BOSS-N1 is a 16th gen part and is not used here. IDSDM (internal dual microSD) and an internal USB 3.0 port are also available for hypervisor boot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStorage Controllers\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 uses the Dell PERC 11 controller family. Production options for the 8-Bay 2.5\":\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H755.\u003c\/strong\u003e 12 Gbps SAS-3, 8 GB flash-backed write cache, full RAID 0\/1\/5\/6\/10\/50\/60. The standard production hardware-RAID controller, and the one to specify for parity RAID. Wholesale Servers ships hardware-RAID R550 builds with the H755 unless you specify otherwise.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H745.\u003c\/strong\u003e Lower-cache hardware-RAID alternative to the H755, also RAID 5 and RAID 6 capable.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHBA355i.\u003c\/strong\u003e SAS-3 pass-through, no hardware RAID. The correct controller for Ceph, ZFS, and Storage Spaces Direct, where the software layer owns redundancy.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC H355 and H345.\u003c\/strong\u003e Entry hardware RAID, \u003cstrong\u003eRAID 0\/1\/10 only\u003c\/strong\u003e, no RAID 5 or 6. Appropriate for mirrored SAS SSD application data; specify the H755 or H745 instead if the design needs parity RAID.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePERC S150.\u003c\/strong\u003e Chipset software RAID, for dev, test, and light boot duty only, never production data.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eProcessors\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake-SP, socket LGA 4189) on the Intel C621A chipset. The R550 is the value cut of the platform, and Dell caps its qualified SKU list at 24 cores per socket; the 32-core and 40-core Platinum SKUs are an R650 or R750 capability. Typical R550 SKUs run from the Xeon Silver 4314 (16 cores, 135W), the standard value-tier build, through the Gold 6326 (16 cores, 2.9 GHz, 185W) for frequency-sensitive licensing-bound workloads, up to the Gold 6342 (24 cores, 230W) at the R550 ceiling, where you should verify the thermal envelope at quote time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRunning a single CPU is the most common configuration mistake on a dual-socket Ice Lake board: the R550's memory channels and part of the PCIe lane budget are split across both sockets, so a one-CPU build strands half the DIMM slots and some riser capacity. If a single socket genuinely covers the workload (which is common for the compute-primary roles this chassis suits), the single-socket \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the better-matched and lower-power chassis. Where the workload needs more than 24 cores per socket, that is the signal to step up to the R650 or R750.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMemory\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen DDR4 DIMM slots, eight channels per CPU at one DIMM per channel. \u003cstrong\u003eThe R550 takes registered ECC RDIMM only. It does not support LRDIMM, and it does not support Intel Optane persistent memory.\u003c\/strong\u003e Maximum capacity is 1 TB with 16x 64 GB dual-rank RDIMM. Rated speed is DDR4-3200 at one DIMM per channel; value-tier CPU SKUs frequently run the bus at 2933, so size memory expecting 2933 to 3200 depending on the processor chosen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCommon configurations: 128 GB (8x 16 GB, one DIMM per channel on each socket), 256 GB (16x 16 GB fully populated, the most common refurbished R550 build), 512 GB (16x 32 GB), and 1 TB (16x 64 GB) at the ceiling. The 1 TB cap, and the absence of LRDIMM and Optane, is the cleanest line between the R550 and the mainstream R650 and R750 with their 32 DIMM slots and 4 TB topology. For workloads whose memory footprint exceeds 1 TB, the R750 is the correct platform, and we will say so at quote time if your sizing pushes against the ceiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eNetworking and PCIe Expansion\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eNetworking on the R550 is OCP NIC 3.0, the 15th gen standard. This is the part of the platform most often described wrong in secondhand listings: the 13th and 14th gen rNDC mezzanine is gone, replaced by the OCP 3.0 slot, which does not consume a standard PCIe slot. The R550 ships with a 1 GbE management LOM for iDRAC; production networking is added through the OCP 3.0 card or a PCIe NIC. Common attaches:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2x 10 GbE SFP+ (Intel X710 or equivalent), the standard production uplink.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2x 25 GbE SFP28 (Mellanox ConnectX-5 or Intel E810) for modern virtualization fabrics and 25 GbE leaf switches.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4x 10 GbE Base-T (Intel X710-T4) for copper 10 GbE without SFP+ optics.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2x 32G Fibre Channel (Emulex or QLogic, PCIe Gen4) for SAN-attached block storage, the common attach for the database-on-SAN pattern this chassis suits.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePCIe expansion is Gen4, up to roughly five slots depending on riser configuration (the value-tier riser layout is narrower than the R750's), plus a dedicated slot for the PERC controller. Gen4 doubles per-lane bandwidth over Gen3, so 25 and 100 GbE NICs and 32G FC HBAs run without slot-level saturation. For designs that need more than that slot budget, the R750's eight-slot layout is the correct platform.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGPU Support\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 is not a GPU platform. It is a value-tier storage-and-compute chassis: the PCIe budget, power delivery, and thermal envelope are not built for double-width accelerators, and we do not quote it for GPU compute. If the deployment needs GPUs (AI and ML inference or training, accelerated VDI, rendering), the Dell answers at this generation are the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650\u003c\/a\u003e for low-profile single-width cards or the R750 and R750xa for double-width work. GPUs specified on an R550 are a configuration we redirect at quote time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eManagement - iDRAC9\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 ships with iDRAC9 (15th gen) and Lifecycle Controller. Wholesale Servers builds include iDRAC9 Enterprise unless you specify otherwise: Enterprise adds virtual console redirection, virtual media, and full SNMP and Redfish API access, which is non-negotiable for remote-site or branch hosts where OS-level recovery has to happen without on-site staff. The 15th gen security stack is present: Silicon Root of Trust, Secure Boot with system-level signing of BIOS updates, TPM 2.0 standard, and System Lockdown (requires Enterprise). iDRAC9 integrates with OpenManage Enterprise for fleet management, Ansible for infrastructure-as-code workflows, and Redfish-native monitoring. iDRAC9 is the 15th gen management generation; iDRAC10 is a later part and does not apply to the R550.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePower and Cooling\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 supports up to two redundant hot-plug power supplies in a 1+1 configuration, from the shared 15th gen PSU line:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003ePSU\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eEfficiency\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eTypical fit\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e600W AC\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePlatinum\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSingle-CPU or Silver 4314 dual-socket, light I\/O, baseline drive population. Lowest-power R550 builds, and a common fit for this compute-primary chassis.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e800W AC\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePlatinum\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStandard dual-socket: Silver 4314 or 4316, 256 GB RAM, SAS SSD population, 2x 10 GbE. The most common R550 PSU.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1100W AC or DC\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePlatinum \/ Titanium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHigher-TDP CPUs (Gold 6326, Gold 6342) and 25 or 100 GbE NICs. DC variant for -48V telco and colocation plant.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 does not offer the 1400W or 2400W PSUs available on the R750, consistent with its value-tier envelope. Cooling is standard front-to-rear air with up to five cold-swap fans; there is no liquid-cooling option. ASHRAE A2 (10 to 35 C) is fully supported across all configurations; A3 (to 40 C) and A4 (to 45 C) are supported with CPU TDP held at 150W or below and higher-power add-in cards restricted. The half-populated SFF backplane on this variant keeps airflow load light, so thermal headroom is comfortable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePhysical Specs \u0026amp; Platform Notes\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForm factor:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2U rack, regulatory model E75S. Standard-depth 2U chassis; budget rack depth for rear cable management.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePCIe expansion:\u003c\/strong\u003e PCIe Gen4, up to about five slots by riser configuration, plus a dedicated PERC slot; full-height and low-profile positions depend on the riser chosen.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eParts availability:\u003c\/strong\u003e Strong. 15th gen Ice Lake is current enough that PERC 11 controllers, OCP 3.0 NICs, DDR4-3200 RDIMM, BOSS-S2 modules, and PSUs are all readily sourced, and Dell support paths remain active.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAccessories we recommend:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r550-r750xs-r760-b21-2u-sliding-rails\"\u003eR550 \/ R750xs \/ R760 B21 2U sliding rail kit\u003c\/a\u003e for the rack mount, an OCP 3.0 NIC sized to the uplink, and a BOSS-S2 card so boot stays off the eight front bays.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlatform notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e SAS\/SATA front bays only (no NVMe backplane), RDIMM-only memory (no LRDIMM or Optane), and OCP NIC 3.0 networking are the three chassis facts buyers most often confirm before committing a design.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOur Assessment\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere it excels:\u003c\/strong\u003e The lowest-acquisition-cost path to dual-socket Ice Lake at 15th gen when local storage is a supporting role. Application servers running on shared SAN or NFS with local OS and scratch on SAS SSD, mid-tier databases with data files on Fibre Channel or iSCSI and the transaction log on local RAID 10 SSD, Kubernetes workers with persistent volumes on external CSI storage, virtualization hosts on shared datastores, and branch-office multi-role hosts running directory, file, and a few application VMs. The economics work whenever the workload is CPU-and-memory-primary and the storage footprint stays modest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere to look instead:\u003c\/strong\u003e If a single Ice Lake socket covers the compute, the R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\" gives the same eight SFF bays at lower cost and power, and many of these compute-primary roles fit on one socket. If storage is the headline, the R550 16-Bay 2.5\" adds SFF density and the R550 8-Bay 3.5\" adds bulk LFF capacity on the same platform. If the design needs front-bay NVMe, the R650 or R750 carry NVMe backplanes. If memory exceeds 1 TB, the R650 or R750 with their 32-slot topology are the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottom line:\u003c\/strong\u003e For a compute-primary SAS\/SATA workload at 1 TB of memory or less and 24 cores per socket or fewer, where local storage is modest and often offloaded to a SAN, the R550 8-Bay 2.5\" is the cost-correct 15th gen chassis. If the workload genuinely uses dual-socket thread count, this is the right box; if it does not, we will put the single-socket R750xs next to it at quote time and compare on total cost of ownership rather than acquisition price alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere the R550 Fits in 2026\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R550 is current-generation-adjacent hardware. 15th gen Ice Lake-SP launched in 2021 and remains under active Dell support, with the 16th gen R660 and R760 (Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids) now above it. For a value-tier 2U buyer that means two things: this is not end-of-life hardware, so a refurbished or surplus-new R550 has real production life ahead of it; and because 16th gen is shipping, 15th gen value-tier pricing on the secondary market is attractive relative to the capability you get.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst 14th gen, the R550 replaces the R540 (Skylake and Cascade Lake). The deltas are 3rd Gen Ice Lake-SP versus 2nd Gen Cascade Lake, eight memory channels per socket versus six, PCIe Gen4 versus Gen3, and the stronger 15th gen iDRAC9 security baseline. The R550 earns its place for compute-primary SAS\/SATA workloads up to 1 TB memory and 24 cores per socket that want dual-socket Ice Lake in a current-generation value chassis without paying for capability the deployment will not use.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eHonest Limitations\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNo front-bay NVMe at any drive count. SAS\/SATA backplane only.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e16 DIMM slots and a 1 TB memory ceiling. No LRDIMM, no Optane PMem.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eValue-tier CPU range, up to 24 cores per socket; higher-core and higher-TDP Ice Lake SKUs are an R650 or R750 capability.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEight SFF bays only. Storage-primary designs want the 16-Bay 2.5\" for density or the 8-Bay 3.5\" for bulk LFF capacity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRoughly five Gen4 PCIe slots by riser, not the R750's eight. Not a GPU platform, and air cooling only.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWorkload Fit\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eR550 8-Bay 2.5\" is appropriate for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eConsider alternatives for\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDual-socket application servers on shared or SAN storage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSingle socket sufficient (R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\", lower cost)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMid-tier database hosts (database files on SAN or iSCSI)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFront-bay NVMe required (R650, R750xs NVMe, R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKubernetes worker nodes (PV on external CSI storage)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMore than 8 SFF bays (R550 16-Bay 2.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVirtualization hosts on shared SAN datastores\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCapacity-tier LFF storage workload (R550 8-Bay 3.5\")\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBranch-office consolidated hosts with modest local storage\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMemory exceeds 1 TB (R750, 32 DIMM slots)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCompute-primary workloads at 15th gen value-tier price\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMore than 24 cores per socket (R650 or R750)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhere to Look Instead\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSingle-socket workload:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r750xs-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own-server\"\u003eR750xs 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e gives the same eight SFF bays with one Ice Lake socket at lower cost and power, the most common alternative for these compute-primary roles.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMore memory, NVMe, or PCIe slots:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r650-8-bay-2-5-build-your-own\"\u003eR650 8-Bay 2.5\"\u003c\/a\u003e is the mainstream 1U step up, and the R750 is the 2U equivalent with NVMe and a 32-slot memory topology.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStorage-primary on the same platform:\u003c\/strong\u003e the R550 16-Bay 2.5\" for SFF density or the R550 8-Bay 3.5\" for bulk LFF capacity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrevious generation, budget-led:\u003c\/strong\u003e the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/dell-poweredge-r540-12-bay-3-5-chassis\"\u003eDell PowerEdge R540\u003c\/a\u003e is the 14th gen value-tier 2U predecessor (Skylake and Cascade Lake, rNDC networking) at a lower price point where 15th gen features are not required.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHPE equivalent:\u003c\/strong\u003e the closest HPE counterpart at this tier is the ProLiant DL380 Gen11 in its value configuration; we name it for cross-shopping but do not currently stock it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReady to Configure?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTell us your workload, your memory target, your CPU preference (or a workload description so we can recommend a SKU), your storage profile (OS-only, RAID 10 SSD, or a mixed tier), your network uplink (10, 25, or 100 GbE on the OCP card), and quantity. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above, and we respond within 24 hours. Every Wholesale Servers Dell PowerEdge R550 ships after a 12+ hour burn-in across every PCIe slot, memory channel, and drive bay, with a 180-day warranty included and 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year options available. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf your workload sizing suggests a single Ice Lake socket is sufficient, we will quote the R750xs 8-Bay 2.5\" alongside the R550 for comparison; total cost of ownership often favors the single-socket option for compute-primary deployments at this storage tier.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45951277007047,"sku":"BP-013637","price":3341.13,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/4493\/0247\/files\/server-design-lab-dell-poweredge-r550-8-bay-25-drives-895014.png?v=1765539691"}],"url":"https:\/\/wholesaleservers.com\/collections\/dell-15th-2u-servers.oembed","provider":"Wholesale Servers","version":"1.0","type":"link"}