Dell PowerEdge R730 16-Bay 2.5"
Configure Your System:
1 Processor Required
Step 1: Choose a series
Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 (Haswell) is the value play. Mature, plentiful, and the lowest cost per core we sell. Memory runs at 2133 MT/s.
Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 (Broadwell) is the same socket a die shrink later: more cores at the top of the range, better performance per watt, and 2400 MT/s memory support. The price gap between v3 and v4 has narrowed enough that v4 is our default recommendation; take v3 when the budget is the whole story.
Whichever series you pick, populate both sockets. A single-CPU R730 loses half its memory channels, half its DIMM slots, and the PCIe slots that route through the second processor.
Step 2: Choose your CPU
Running Windows Server 2022? Two 8-core CPUs land exactly on the 16-core base license. Our pick is the E5-2667 v4 (8 cores, 3.2 GHz): high clocks per core are exactly what Windows workloads reward, and the license covers the pair with nothing wasted.
Virtualizing on vSphere? VMware licenses a 16-core minimum per socket, so the 8-core strategy buys you nothing there. Take core count instead: the E5-2680 v4 (14 cores) is the workhorse pick, and the E5-2698 v4 (20 cores) is where dense consolidation lands.
General compute, Proxmox, and Linux duty: mid-range v4 parts in the 2650 to 2680 range cover the widest span of workloads per dollar.
Fair warning: a 13th generation platform is a value play, not a performance play. If your workload is licensed per core or single-thread bound, newer silicon can cost less in licenses than it adds in hardware, and we will tell you so at quote time if that is your situation.
2 Heat Sink Optional
Two things still matter. First, blanks: every drive bay blank and internal shroud should stay installed, because the R730 cools front to back and an open path lets air skip the components that need it. Second, ambient temperature: this chassis was engineered for datacenter intake air, and it will run a closet or office rack louder and hotter. It will survive it, but fan and drive life is better in a real cold aisle.
If your build includes GPUs, cooling stops being simple. GPU configurations on the R730 need specific riser, power, and airflow arrangements, so call 1-800-778-1545 before checkout and we will confirm the whole thermal picture.
3 Memory (RAM) 24 DIMM slots, modules added in sets of 2 Required
The E5-2600 platform runs four memory channels per socket. Populate up to two DIMMs per channel (16 slots total) and memory runs at full speed: 2400 MT/s with v4 processors, 2133 with v3. Load the third DIMM on each channel to reach all 24 slots and the whole bank drops a speed tier. That is the trade: 16 slots for maximum bandwidth, 24 slots for maximum capacity per dollar.
Our default is 16 DIMMs at full speed. Virtualization, databases, and general compute feel memory bandwidth more than they feel the last few slots.
Go to all 24 when capacity is the whole point: a budget consolidation host or a memory-hungry application where 50 percent more RAM at a lower clock beats less RAM at a higher one. That is a real workload profile, and this platform serves it cheaply.
Whichever count you choose, buy it as one matched set, now. We know the instinct is to leave slots open for a later upgrade, and on paper that is sensible. In practice, a year from now you are hunting for DIMMs that match the rank and speed of what is already in the box, and a mismatch either clocks the whole server down or refuses to train. The server is in production by then, so adding memory means a maintenance window you have to schedule and justify.
Common landing spots: 128 GB (16x 8 GB) for general duty, 256 GB (16x 16 GB) for a serious virtualization host at full speed, 384 GB (24x 16 GB) when capacity outranks bandwidth, and 512 GB (16x 32 GB) for database work.
4 RAID Controllers Optional
PERC H730P (2 GB battery-backed cache) is the configurator default and our pick for most builds. The cache is what keeps write performance respectable on parity RAID, and on a fuller chassis it is the difference between an array that performs and one that merely functions.
PERC H730 (1 GB cache) is the same controller family with half the cache. It is a fair savings on an 8-bay build with modest write load; on a loaded chassis, spend the small difference on the H730P.
PERC H330 has no cache. It handles RAID 1 boot mirrors and light duty, and nothing else well. Do not put it in front of a parity array you care about.
HBA330 (non-RAID) is the one to pick when the software owns the drives: vSAN, Storage Spaces Direct, Ceph, and ZFS all want direct drive access, and a RAID controller in the path actively hurts. If you are building any of those, the HBA330 is the correct and complete answer.
Array guidance regardless of controller: RAID 6 over RAID 5 on large spinning drives, RAID 10 where write latency matters, and a hot spare on any array whose rebuild you would rather not race.
5 Storage Drives Select up to 16 drives (0/16 Slots Used) Optional
The 2.5" R730 takes SAS and SATA drives in both flavors: solid state and spinning. Our guidance by workload: SSDs for anything latency-sensitive (virtualization datastores, databases, application volumes), 10K SAS spinning drives where capacity per dollar matters more than IOPS, and a mix is often the honest answer, fast tier up front, bulk behind it.
Buy new. We steer you away from refurbished on drives specifically, and we say that as a company that sells refurbished servers all day. The chassis, board, and power supplies in a refurbished R730 have proven themselves through our burn-in; a used drive with unknown hours is a different bet, and a rebuild is exactly when you do not want to lose a second one.
The R730 predates Dell's dedicated boot card, so plan the boot volume out of your data bays: a small RAID 1 pair of SSDs in two bays is the standard pattern. It costs you two bays and it is worth it; a boot failure and a data failure should never be the same event.
Fair warning on capacity math: RAID overhead, hot spares, and filesystem headroom mean usable space lands well under the sum of the labels. Size for the usable number, and when in doubt, one drive size up is cheap insurance against a forklift upgrade later.
6 Remote Access Required
The dividing line is the remote console. iDRAC8 Enterprise gives you remote KVM and virtual media, meaning you can reach the server's screen, mount an ISO, and rebuild an OS from anywhere, even when the operating system is down. Express does not include the remote console, so any problem below the OS level means walking to the rack.
Our pick is Enterprise, and on a 13th generation server the case is stronger, not weaker, than on new hardware. These servers typically go into branch racks, colos, labs, and secondary roles, places nobody visits on a schedule, and the license costs a fraction of one site trip.
Express is the right call only when the server sits down the hall and someone can physically reach it without ceremony.
One honest note on age: iDRAC8's interface is a product of its era, and some functions lean on older browser technology than iDRAC9 does. It works, we use it daily, but budget a few minutes of setup patience.
If you are deploying 5 or more units, take Enterprise on all of them. Fleet management without remote console access does not work in practice.
7 Power Supply 2x included in build Required
2x 495W covers a real share of R730 builds: dual mid-range CPUs, a moderate memory load, and a handful of drives all land inside it. It is the configurator default for a reason.
2x 750W is our pick the moment the build fills out: higher-TDP processors, a full backplane, or heavy memory. The price step is small and it buys you the 50 percent load target, where a PSU runs at peak efficiency, runs cooler, and lasts longer than one working near its limit.
2x 1100W is for loaded chassis with top-TDP silicon, and 2x 1600W exists for GPU configurations; if you are speccing GPUs into an R730, talk to us before checkout about risers and airflow anyway.
Watch the estimated TDP counter at the bottom of the page as you add components to see where your build lands, and when it sits between two tiers, size up; the price difference is a rounding error against the efficiency and headroom you get back.
8 Network Cards Required
Quad 1 GbE (Broadcom 5720, Intel i350) is the default and covers file, print, domain, and light application duty. If the server's clients are desktops on gigabit switching, this is honestly all you need, and it is the cheapest option on the list.
10 Gb becomes the floor the moment this server hosts shared storage, a busy hypervisor, or backup traffic on a deadline. The 2x 10 Gb + 2x 1 Gb combo cards are the sweet spot: production on the fast pair, management on the slow pair.
Then port type, and this is the one that catches people. SFP+ ports take fiber or DAC cables and talk to datacenter-grade switches. BASE-T ports are 10 Gb copper on ordinary RJ45. Neither is better; they must simply match your switch. Order SFP+ against a copper-only switch and the server racks up with nothing to plug into.
Need more ports than the NDC provides? PCIe network cards stack on top of whatever you choose here. Call 1-800-778-1545 and we will spec the whole path, switch ports included.
9 Operating System Required
First, an honest compatibility note for this platform. Windows Server 2025 is not certified for this processor generation, and current VMware ESXi releases no longer support it. A 13th generation server is a value platform, and the right OS choices lean the same way.
Windows Server 2022 is the version to buy. Standard licensing is per core with a 16-core base, which is why our processor guidance steers Windows buyers to two 8-core CPUs: the 16-Core license covers that build exactly. Past 16 total cores, you need the 24-Core option. On CALs, count your users and round up.
Fair warning on Evaluation Editions: free and fully functional for 180 days, then they expire. Right for labs and proof-of-concept, wrong for production.
VMware: we will install ESXi on request for hosts joining an existing licensed cluster, but we do not recommend starting a new VMware deployment on this platform given the support status.
Proxmox VE is our quiet favorite for the R730: open-source KVM virtualization with clustering and live migration, no per-core license math, and full current support on this hardware. It turns a value chassis into a genuinely modern hypervisor.
Ubuntu Server LTS covers Linux application duty with five years of free updates and no licensing conversation at all.
No OS is there for teams imaging from their own deployment infrastructure.
Not sure which fits? Tell us the workload at quote time, or call 1-800-778-1545.
WServer Warranty
Dell PowerEdge R730 16-Bay 2.5" Drives [13th Gen] Detailed Review
The refurbished Dell PowerEdge R730 16-Bay 2.5" is the maximum small-form-factor density configuration of Dell's 13th-generation 2U dual-socket platform: sixteen 2.5" hot-swap front bays in a single 2U chassis, built for dense SAS and SATA SSD deployments. Among the standard R730 chassis variants it carries the highest front-bay spindle count, and it is the build we reach for when a customer needs many fast drives per node without stepping up to the dedicated dense-storage R730xd.
In our deployments this is the R730 of choice for vSAN-class hyperconverged nodes at 13th-gen pricing, dense database hosts with substantial local SSD, and high-VM-density virtualization where spindle count drives IOPS scaling. The 16-bay backplane also unlocks something the 8-bay chassis cannot do: a dual PERC front configuration that splits the array across two controllers. We cover that in detail below, because it is the single biggest reason to choose this chassis over an 8-bay build.
Refurbished does not mean uncertain here. Every R730 we ship is rebuilt to the configuration you specify and runs a 12+ hour burn-in across every memory channel, every PCIe slot, and every drive bay before it leaves the bench, backed by a 180-day warranty with 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year options available. To spec a build or talk through a dense-SSD layout, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.
Where the R730 16-Bay Fits in the Family
The R730 is Dell's 13th-generation 2U dual-socket workhorse, and the family splits cleanly by storage intent. This 16-Bay 2.5" build is the high-density SFF member: sixteen hot-swap bays for an all-flash or SSD-heavy front, in the same chassis envelope as the lighter variants. If you do not need sixteen front bays, the lower-cost members of the family are usually the better spend, and we will tell you so at quote time rather than oversell the density.
- Need eight SFF bays, not sixteen? The R730 8-Bay 2.5" is the lower-cost general-purpose build on the same platform.
- Buying for spinning-disk capacity rather than SSD IOPS? The R730 8-Bay 3.5" takes large LFF NL-SAS drives.
- Need more than sixteen SFF bays, or a rear flex bay for boot or hot spares? Step into the dense-storage line: R730xd 24-Bay 2.5" + RFB for maximum SFF density, or the R730xd 12-Bay 3.5" + RFB for dense LFF capacity with an SSD rear tier.
- Comparing across vendors? The HPE equivalent is the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 16-Bay 2.5", the same Grantley-era 2U dual-socket platform on HPE's side.
The platform underneath every one of these is identical: dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 or v4 processors, 24 DDR4 DIMM slots, iDRAC8 management, and PCIe Gen3 expansion. What changes from build to build is the front-bay count, the drive form factor, and on this chassis specifically, the dual PERC option.
Storage - 16 SFF Bays
Sixteen 2.5" SAS/SATA hot-swap front bays, fed by either a single PERC controller or, on this chassis, a dual PERC front configuration. The 16-Bay backplane is built for dense SSD as the volume use case. HDD configurations work but are uncommon at this drive count; if you are buying for spinning-disk capacity, the LFF chassis is the right call instead.
Common configurations we build on the 16-Bay:
- 16x 1.92 TB SAS SSD, dual PERC: the volume vSAN OSA layout. Two disk groups of one cache plus seven capacity each (15 drives, one spare), or three groups of one cache plus four capacity. vSAN-appropriate hardware design at 13th-gen pricing.
- 16x 3.84 TB SAS SSD, dual PERC: higher-capacity dense virtualization datastore. Roughly 50 TB usable at RAID 60 across two RAID 6 sets.
- 16x 1.6 TB Mixed-Use SAS SSD: write-intensive density. Database transaction log aggregation, VDI write-cache pools, log retention with SSD-class endurance.
- 14 SSD data plus 2 SSD boot mirror: all-flash with front-bay boot when you would rather not depend on the internal SD module.
- IDSDM boot plus 16 SSD data: hypervisor-only build with all sixteen bays free for data. Maximum spindle count for IOPS-density workloads.
The dual PERC advantage
The 16-Bay backplane supports two PERC H730P controllers in a front-PERC layout, each fronting eight of the sixteen drives with its own 2 GB battery-backed cache. For sustained write-intensive workloads at high drive count, this is the reason to pick the 16-Bay over an 8-bay build. Splitting the array across two controllers gives you:
- Twice the controller cache (effective 4 GB across the pair) and write coalescing handled separately per eight-drive group.
- More PCIe bandwidth to the drives, since two slots feed the array instead of one.
- Failure isolation: a controller fault takes out eight drives, not all sixteen.
The tradeoff is real and worth stating plainly. A single logical array cannot span all sixteen drives under dual PERC (each controller sees only its eight), you manage two arrays instead of one, and you spend two PCIe slots and a cost premium. For read-dominant light virtualization, a single H730P fronting all sixteen is fine and cheaper. For vSAN, dense SQL Server, or write-heavy application tiers, dual PERC is the configuration we recommend.
Boot deserves a note: the R730 has no BOSS card (that arrives with the 14th-gen R740). On this chassis you either dedicate a front bay or two to a boot mirror, or use the Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM) to keep all sixteen bays free for data. For ESXi-only nodes we usually specify IDSDM.
Processors
Dual-socket LGA 2011-3, running Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 (Haswell-EP, 2014) or E5-2600 v4 (Broadwell-EP, 2016). The two generations are drop-in compatible in the same sockets, so secondary-market units arrive with either. Core counts run from 4 up to 22 (the E5-2699 v4), with TDPs up to 145 W.
For a dense 16-SSD chassis we size CPU higher than we would on a light 8-bay build, because the drives can push more IOPS than a small core count can service:
- E5-2680 v4 (14C / 2.4 GHz / 120 W): the balanced workhorse and our default recommendation for most 16-Bay virtualization and database hosts.
- E5-2697 v4 (18C) or E5-2699 v4 (22C): for high-IOPS vSAN nodes and consolidation hosts where core count is the constraint.
- E5-2620 v4 (8C): a budget floor, appropriate only for lighter storage targets where the SSDs are not the bottleneck.
Fair warning on cooling: CPUs above 120 W require the high-performance heatsink, and we ship the HP heatsink on any build with a 135 W or hotter CPU. Running a top-bin part on the standard heatsink is a sustained-load stability risk, and it is one of the most common configuration errors we see on field-built 13th-gen units. A single-socket R730 is also possible but halves your memory channels and PCIe lanes; for a dense 16-bay build we recommend both sockets populated.
Memory
24 DDR4 DIMM slots, twelve per socket. The Grantley platform gives each E5-2600 v3/v4 CPU four memory channels, so the 24 slots populate at three DIMMs per channel (3 DPC). This is the architectural difference from the 14th-gen R740, which uses six channels at 2 DPC, and it matters for how speed behaves as you fill the board.
- Types: RDIMM and LRDIMM. No Optane PMem on this platform, that capability arrives with the 14th-gen R740.
- Capacity: 768 GB with 32 GB RDIMMs across all 24 slots, up to 1.5 TB with 64 GB LRDIMMs. 128 GB LRDIMMs push higher on v4 CPUs but are expensive and uncommon on the secondary market, so we quote them only on request.
- Speed by population: DDR4-2400 on v4 CPUs at one and two DIMMs per channel. Populating the third DIMM per channel steps the bus down (1866 MT/s on RDIMMs), so the largest 24-DIMM builds trade some bandwidth for footprint. v3 CPUs top out at 2133 MT/s.
For a 16-SSD virtualization host, 512 GB to 1 TB is the typical sizing; VDI density commonly wants the full 1.5 TB. We will steer you away from overbuying speed-grade DIMMs that the CPU cannot clock anyway.
Storage Controllers
The R730 runs the Dell PERC 13th-generation controller family from the integrated Mini Mono slot, plus add-in controllers for the dual PERC front layout and external storage. Our recommendations by workload:
- PERC H730P (2 GB cache, battery-backed): the production default for write-intensive or transactional local storage, and the controller we pair in the dual PERC front configuration on this chassis.
- PERC H730 (1 GB cache, battery-backed): a defensible budget step down for read-heavy or modest-write arrays where the extra cache is not load-bearing.
- PERC H330 (no cache): entry-tier hardware RAID for light workloads only.
- HBA330 (pass-through): the right choice for software-defined storage stacks (vSAN, Storage Spaces Direct, Ceph, ZFS) that want raw disks, not a RAID controller in front of them.
- PERC H830 (2 GB cache): for external SAS JBOD enclosures when local bays are not enough.
We do not quote the S130 software-RAID option for production. It is a chipset-level dev and test feature, and on a dense storage chassis it is the wrong answer. Note that the H730P is the top of the cache ladder here; the 8 GB-cache H740P is a 14th-gen R740 part and does not belong on this platform.
Networking and PCIe Expansion
Networking is handled by the Dell rNDC (Network Daughter Card), a mezzanine slot that does not consume a PCIe slot. The rNDC options that show up on R730 units are:
- 4x 1 GbE: the legacy default, and a bottleneck for any flash-backed workload.
- 2x 10 GbE plus 2x 1 GbE: a common mixed-speed option.
- 4x 10 GbE (SFP+ or BASE-T): the practical floor for a 16-SSD chassis.
Sixteen SSDs will saturate 1 GbE on any meaningful workload, so we treat 10 GbE as the minimum on this build and add a 25 GbE PCIe NIC when storage traffic justifies it. For PCIe expansion, the R730 offers up to 7 PCIe Gen3 slots across three risers depending on riser configuration, with a mix of full-height and low-profile slots. That budget covers the dual PERC pair, a high-speed NIC, and an HBA or accelerator with room to spare. The hard ceiling to remember is Gen3: there are no Gen4 lanes on this platform.
GPU Support
The R730 is one of the few 13th-gen 2U platforms with a real GPU envelope. With the GPU-enabling riser, high-performance heatsinks, and the higher-wattage PSUs, it supports up to two double-width 300 W accelerators or three single-width cards. Era-appropriate parts are the NVIDIA Tesla M60, M10, P40, and P100 for the double-width slots, and the single-width T4 for inference and VDI offload.
The constraint to plan around is thermal, not electrical. GPU configurations require the GPU air shroud and high-performance fan profile, and they want a controlled inlet temperature; a fully loaded 16-SSD chassis already runs warm, so a GPU build pushes cooling and PSU sizing to the top of the range. If GPU density is the primary goal rather than storage density, a 2U chassis with fewer drive bays leaves more thermal headroom.
Management - iDRAC8 Generation
The R730 uses iDRAC8 with Lifecycle Controller. For production we specify iDRAC8 Enterprise: full remote KVM with virtual media, dedicated management NIC, and the automation hooks that make a fleet manageable. iDRAC8 Express is the lighter tier and is fine for lab or single-unit use.
- iDRAC8 Enterprise: virtual console, virtual media, agent-free monitoring, OpenManage Enterprise integration, and remote firmware management through Lifecycle Controller.
- Security baseline: a TPM 1.2 or 2.0 module is available for measured boot and for compliance frameworks that require it.
One honest generational note: iDRAC8 predates Dell's Silicon Root of Trust, which is a 14th-gen iDRAC9 feature. If hardware-anchored firmware integrity is a hard requirement for your environment, that is a reason to step up to the R740 rather than fight the platform.
Power and Cooling
The R730 takes Dell Common Form Factor hot-plug redundant PSUs in 495 W, 750 W (Platinum or Titanium), and 1100 W ratings, in a 1+1 redundant pair. PSU sizing matters more on this chassis than on the lighter builds, because sixteen active SSDs plus dual high-TDP CPUs plus a dual PERC pair add up.
| Configuration | PSU recommendation | Est. peak draw |
|---|---|---|
| Light (low-TDP CPUs, partial RAM, fewer SSDs) | 2x 495 W Platinum | ~320 W |
| Balanced (dual E5-2680 v4, full RAM, 16 SAS SSD) | 2x 750 W Platinum | ~520 W |
| Heavy (dual E5-2699 v4, full RAM, 16 SSD plus GPU) | 2x 1100 W Platinum | ~850 W |
For a fully populated 16-Bay we treat 750 W as the practical floor and specify 1100 W when the build adds a GPU or top-bin CPUs. 750 W can be marginal on a maxed-out node, so we size up rather than run a PSU near its ceiling under sustained load.
Physical Specs and Platform Notes
- Form factor: 2U rack chassis, roughly 684 mm deep without the bezel and about 715 mm with it. Budget additional depth for the optional cable management arm when planning rack and PDU clearance.
- PCIe expansion: up to 7 PCIe Gen3 slots across three risers depending on riser configuration, in a mix of full-height and low-profile. The riser you choose trades slot count against GPU and full-height card support.
- Parts availability: excellent. The R730 is one of the most widely deployed 13th-gen platforms, so drives, PSUs, controllers, risers, and fans are plentiful on the secondary market. Dell ProSupport on 13th gen has reached end of service, so third-party maintenance is the standard production support path in 2026.
- Accessories we recommend: the 2U B6 ReadyRails II sliding rail kit for tool-less mounting, the 13th-gen 2U security bezel for physical drive security, and the cable management arm when the rear of the rack is shared.
- Platform notes: CPU hot-plug is not supported. Hypervisor boot uses IDSDM or a dedicated front-bay mirror, since there is no BOSS card on this platform. The dual PERC front layout requires the appropriate 16-bay backplane, which we configure at build time.
Our Assessment
Where it excels: dense small-form-factor SSD deployment at 13th-gen acquisition cost. This is the R730 we put in front of customers building vSAN OSA hyperconverged nodes, dense SQL Server or PostgreSQL hosts with substantial local flash, and virtualization hosts where sixteen spindles enable strong IOPS scaling at 100-plus VM density. The dual PERC front configuration makes it genuinely good at sustained write-intensive workloads, which is not something the 8-bay variants can match.
Where to look instead: if eight SSDs cover the requirement, the R730 8-Bay 2.5" is the lower-cost answer. For bulk spinning-disk capacity, the R730 8-Bay 3.5" or the LFF R730xd is the right tool. For more than sixteen SFF bays, the R730xd 24-Bay 2.5" + RFB is the platform. And for a production deployment planned to run four or more years, or one that needs iDRAC9 firmware integrity and the H740P's 8 GB cache, the 14th-gen R740 16-Bay 2.5" is worth the step up.
Bottom line: the R730 16-Bay 2.5" is the right buy for a team that needs a dense, write-capable flash node now and is buying on a 13th-gen budget for a two to three year horizon. It is a proven, widely supported platform with plentiful parts, and the dual PERC option gives it a real performance edge in its class. Buyers chasing five-plus year currency, Gen4 NVMe, or hardware-anchored firmware integrity should price the 14th- or 15th-gen alternatives before committing. At quote time we will show R730 16-Bay pricing next to the R740 16-Bay so the cost-versus-longevity tradeoff is in front of you.
Where the R730 16-Bay Fits in 2026
The R730 is two Dell generations back: the 15th-gen R650 and R750 (Ice Lake-SP) and the 16th-gen R660 and R760 (Sapphire Rapids) sit ahead of it, and the 14th-gen R740 is its direct successor. That distance is exactly why it is attractive on price, and the platform is still a sound buy when the workload fits inside Gen3 SAS SSD performance and a two to three year support horizon.
A word on the generation before it: the 12th-generation R720 that preceded the R730 is end of life. We treat the R730 as the practical floor for a dependable refurbished 2U build today and do not stock or recommend the R720 for new deployments, because parts support and platform currency have fallen too far. If you are weighing a step down for budget reasons, the honest answer is to stay on the R730 rather than reach back another generation.
Stepping forward, the R740 16-Bay 2.5" brings DDR4-2933 memory, iDRAC9 with Silicon Root of Trust, the PERC H740P with 8 GB cache, Optane PMem, and BOSS boot. For dense SFF storage you intend to run well past 2028, that is often the right call. For a node you will refresh inside three years, the R730 16-Bay delivers the same density for materially less money.
Honest Limitations
- Sixteen SFF bays is the standard-R730 ceiling. For higher per-node SFF density, move to the R730xd 24-Bay 2.5" + RFB within 13th gen, or the 14th-gen R740xd.
- PCIe Gen3 and SAS SSD only. There are no Gen4 lanes and no front NVMe on this platform. For modern NVMe-class IOPS or vSAN ESA, the R730 is structurally limited; that is an R650 or R750 conversation.
- No BOSS card. Boot consumes a front bay or uses the internal SD module. Plan the boot device into the bay budget up front.
- iDRAC8, not iDRAC9. No Silicon Root of Trust. For firmware-integrity-sensitive environments, the R740 16-Bay 2.5" is the answer.
- Memory speed steps down at full population. The third DIMM per channel drops RDIMM speed to 1866 MT/s. Size for either maximum capacity or maximum bandwidth, not both.
- Dual PERC adds operational complexity. Two independent arrays rather than one. Capacity planning and monitoring tooling have to account for the split.
- Power draw under sustained load is real. A maxed-out 16-SSD node with hot CPUs and a GPU can approach the high end of the PSU range. Size the supplies with headroom.
- vSAN HCL for 13th gen is in transition. VMware compatibility on E5-2600 v3/v4 platforms is winding down. Confirm the vSAN HCL for your target vSphere version at quote time, and we will verify it with you.
- SSD rebuild times are measured in hours. Faster than spinning disk, but a 4 TB SAS SSD rebuild under array load can run several hours. Allocate a hot spare at sixteen-drive density.
Workload Fit
| Right for | Consider alternatives for |
|---|---|
| vSAN OSA hyperconverged nodes at 13th-gen pricing | Eight SSDs are enough (use the R730 8-Bay 2.5" at lower cost) |
| Dense SAS SSD virtualization hosts, 100-plus VMs | vSAN ESA or Gen4 NVMe (use R650 or newer) |
| SQL Server or PostgreSQL with substantial local SSD | More than sixteen SFF bays (use the R730xd 24-Bay) |
| Write-intensive arrays using the dual PERC layout | Bulk LFF capacity (use the R730 8-Bay 3.5" or LFF R730xd) |
| Storage-heavy converged compute | Four-plus year horizons or iDRAC9 integrity (use the R740) |
Where to Look Instead
- Lower cost, same platform: R730 8-Bay 2.5" when eight SFF bays cover the workload.
- Spinning-disk capacity: R730 8-Bay 3.5" for large LFF NL-SAS drives.
- Maximum 13th-gen density: R730xd 24-Bay 2.5" + RFB for 24-plus SFF bays, or R730xd 12-Bay 3.5" + RFB for dense LFF with an SSD rear tier.
- Cross-vendor equivalent: HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 16-Bay 2.5", the same Grantley-era 2U platform on HPE's side.
- Step up a generation: R740 16-Bay 2.5" for iDRAC9, H740P 8 GB cache, DDR4-2933, and a longer support horizon.
- Mounting hardware: the 2U B6 ReadyRails II rail kit to rack any of the above.
Ready to Configure?
Tell us the workload (vSAN, database, virtualization), your target SSD count and capacity, the RAID level, single or dual PERC, CPU and memory sizing, boot method, and networking speed, and we will build the quote around it. For vSAN specifically, share your cluster size, vSphere version, and any existing HCL constraints, and we will verify R730 16-Bay compatibility and size the cache and capacity tiers with you.
Every Wholesale Servers R730 ships after a 12+ hour burn-in test covering every PCIe slot, every memory channel, and every drive bay, and carries a 180-day warranty with 1-Year, 2-Year, and 3-Year Premium options. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form on this page, and note that volume pricing applies at 5 units and above.
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