The R740 8-Bay 3.5" is the LFF capacity variant of the 14th gen 2U Dell PowerEdge family. Eight 3.5" hot-swap front bays for high-capacity NL-SAS or SATA drives, dual 1st or 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, 24 DDR4 DIMM slots, the full Network Daughter Card mezzanine, and up to 8 PCIe Gen3 expansion slots in the 2U envelope. This is the chassis we recommend when the workload calls for bulk capacity in a 2U footprint, the per-bay capacity is the design point (10 TB or larger drives), and 8 LFF bays is enough to carry the workload.

The 8-Bay 3.5" is a precision pick within the R740 family. It earns its place specifically when 8 large LFF drives is the right capacity for the workload and the chassis is compute-balanced rather than storage-dense. For higher LFF bay counts the R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" or R740xd2 24-Bay 3.5" are the storage-dense companions in the 2U family. For SFF density and IOPS, the R740 16-Bay 2.5" is the SFF flagship. For native NVMe, the R740xd 24-Bay 2.5" NVMe variant is the right chassis; no R740 variant supports front NVMe.

To configure a build, call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form below. Every refurbished unit ships under our 180-day warranty with 12+ hour burn-in testing, and volume pricing starts at 5 units.

When 8-Bay 3.5" Is the Right Choice

The 8-Bay LFF chassis earns its place when one of these design patterns applies: backup-target servers (Veeam repositories, Commvault MediaAgents, rsync archive endpoints) where streaming-write performance to NL-SAS is the workload and 8 large drives is enough capacity, departmental file servers carrying moderate capacity (under 150 TB raw) where 8 NL-SAS drives in RAID 6 deliver the right capacity at the right cost-per-TB, media archive nodes and cold storage in 2U where retrieval is occasional and capacity-per-bay matters, build server scratch storage where the chassis is CPU-heavy with a large local working set, and log aggregation or data warehouse staging where the I/O pattern is sequential and the capacity is bounded.

What does not belong on this chassis: workloads needing more than 8 LFF bays of capacity (the R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" or R740xd2 24-Bay 3.5" are the storage-dense answers), random-IOPS-sensitive workloads (NL-SAS 7.2K delivers 100 to 200 IOPS per drive, orders of magnitude below SSD; for performance-sensitive workloads the 16-Bay 2.5" with SAS SSDs is the right call), and NVMe-first storage architectures (no R740 chassis supports front NVMe). Most buyers who think they want an R740 8-Bay 3.5" actually want either the R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" (if capacity is the primary use case) or the R740 16-Bay 2.5" with SSDs (if performance is the primary use case). We will tell you directly at quote time when a different chassis is the better answer.

Storage - 8 LFF Bays (the Defining Characteristic)

Eight 3.5" hot-swap front bays on a direct-attach SAS/SATA backplane. No SAS expander. 3.5" drives give access to capacities that simply do not exist in 2.5" form factor:

• NL-SAS HDDs up to 20 TB: Near-line SAS drives deliver the highest capacity available in spinning disk. Eight 16 TB drives yields 128 TB raw, eight 20 TB drives yields 160 TB raw. Dual-port connectivity for redundant path access. Sequential throughput is excellent (250 to 300 MB/s per drive); random IOPS are modest (typically 100 to 200 IOPS per drive). The right call for archive, backup target, and sequential-read workloads.
• SATA HDDs up to 20 TB: Lower cost than NL-SAS at the same capacity. Single-port vs NL-SAS dual-port, lower sustained throughput, less suitable for multi-host shared-storage access patterns. Acceptable for backup targets and local archive where SAS dual-port redundancy is not a requirement; we recommend NL-SAS for 24/7 production workloads where MTBF matters.
• 3.5" SAS SSDs: Rare on the secondary market; LFF SSDs exist but most modern SSD inventory is in the 2.5" form factor. If you need SSD and LFF together, a 3.5"-to-2.5" adapter is possible but the R740 16-Bay 2.5" is usually the simpler architecture.

RAID guidance for LFF arrays: RAID 6 is the floor for any NL-SAS array on this chassis. RAID 5 is not safe on large-capacity spinning disk because rebuild times on 16 TB and 20 TB drives stretch into 24 to 36 hours under load, during which a second drive failure is statistically likely. We do not quote RAID 5 for large-capacity spinning disk arrays; if you push back on this we will document the warning and let you make the call, but our recommendation is unambiguous: RAID 6 or RAID 60 only on this chassis at production capacity tiers.

NVMe note: The R740 8-Bay 3.5" chassis does not support front NVMe, consistent with all R740 variants. For NVMe storage, the R740xd 24-Bay 2.5" NVMe variant is the family's NVMe specialist.

Boot drive recommendation - BOSS module: Dell's Boot Optimized Storage Subsystem is a hardware-RAID 1 pair of M.2 SATA SSDs on a dedicated PCIe card. We recommend it as the standard boot device on every R740 production build. On the 8-Bay 3.5" specifically, BOSS matters more than on the SFF variants: dedicating a 16 TB or 20 TB front bay to OS boot is an expensive trade. BOSS keeps the OS off the front bays and preserves all eight for data capacity.

Capacity planning note: Eight bays with RAID 6 leaves you with approximately 6 drives of usable capacity, or 96 TB usable with 16 TB drives. RAID 60 (two RAID 6 sets striped) is the option when you want the additional fault tolerance of two failures per RAID 6 set at the cost of slightly more usable-capacity overhead. Plan for hot-spare allocation: a global hot spare on an 8-drive chassis reduces usable bays to 7, but on 16 TB+ drives the multi-day rebuild window makes hot-spare allocation a reasonable trade.

Storage Controllers

Same Dell PERC controller family as the rest of the R740 lineup. The 8-bay LFF workload profile (large sequential writes, RAID 6 protected, sustained-read on retrieval) shapes the controller choice:

• PERC H740P (8 GB NV cache, battery-backed): Our recommendation for any configuration with meaningful write workload or production data on this chassis. Battery backup is particularly important on large-capacity spinning disk arrays where rebuild operations put sustained stress on the controller and drives simultaneously. The 8 GB cache size is well-matched to an 8-drive LFF array and helps absorb the parity calculations RAID 6 requires.
• PERC H730P (2 GB cache, battery-backed): Adequate for read-dominant workloads such as backup targets, archive retrieval, and sequential-read applications where peak write throughput is not the constraint. The 2 GB cache is workable on an 8-drive array though tighter than the H740P under sustained write load.
• PERC H730 (1 GB cache, battery-backed): The 13th-gen-era controller that Dell maintained Mini-PERC slot compatibility for on 14th gen. Appears on the secondary market frequently as a carryover from prior deployments. Viable on this chassis on read-dominant LFF workloads where write throughput is light: cache size is small for a 12-TB-plus drive array but the workload pattern of a backup target or archive tolerates it. Quote when budget is the constraint; otherwise the H730P is a small step up for a meaningful cache size increase, and the H740P is the right answer on production data with mixed write load.
• HBA330 (pass-through): For software-defined storage or backup applications that manage drives directly (Veeam, Veritas, certain ZFS-based stacks). Many backup applications explicitly prefer direct drive access over hardware RAID for snapshot integrity reasons.
• PERC H330 (no cache) and S140 (software RAID): Light-workload only. Not recommended for production data on large-capacity spinning disk.

The controller mounts in a dedicated Mini-PERC slot, not a general PCIe slot, so the full PCIe slot count remains available for networking and any add-in cards regardless of controller selection.

Processors

CPU options: Dual 1st Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Skylake-SP, 2017) or 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Cascade Lake-SP, 2019), socket LGA 3647 on the Intel C620-series (Lewisburg) chipset. Skylake and Cascade Lake are drop-in compatible on the same R740 motherboard. Up to 28 cores per CPU. The platform vocabulary matches the rest of the R740 family; the workload profile is what differs.

Our SKU recommendations on this chassis: Right-sizing compute to workload matters more on this chassis than on the SFF variants. Pure backup-target or archive workloads do not need top-bin CPUs; the drives are the bottleneck, not the CPU. Intel Xeon Silver 4214R (12 cores, 2.4 GHz, 100W) or Silver 4216 (16 cores, 2.1 GHz, 100W) are our most common specs for backup-target and archive builds. Gold 5218 (16 cores, 2.3 GHz, 125W) is the right step up for departmental file servers and build-server-scratch deployments where moderate compute runs alongside the storage tier. Gold 6230 (20 cores, 2.1 GHz, 125W) is appropriate when the node runs meaningful compute workloads alongside the bulk storage. Higher core counts (Gold 6248 and above) are usually overspec on this chassis; if the workload justifies a 150W or 205W CPU, the compute-first 8-Bay 2.5" or the high-density 16-Bay 2.5" is usually the better chassis match.

Heatsink requirement still applies: Any CPU above 150W TDP requires Dell's high-performance heatsink kit and high-performance fan kit. Most LFF builds do not need it because the workload typically calls for Silver or low-end Gold CPUs. When the build does include a top-bin CPU (a misallocation worth flagging at quote time), the kits are mandatory regardless of chassis variant.

Single-socket warning: A single-CPU LFF build is supported and is sometimes the right answer for pure backup-target nodes where dual-socket is overkill. With one CPU populated only 12 of the 24 DIMM slots are accessible and half the PCIe lanes are inactive, the NDC routes through the populated CPU, and several PCIe slots become unavailable. For genuine single-socket workloads (low-throughput backup, archive with light compute), this is acceptable. For nodes running compute alongside the storage, dual-socket is the right call.

Memory

Architecture: 24 DDR4 DIMM slots organized as 12 slots per CPU across 6 memory channels at 2 DIMMs per channel. Same Purley 6-channel layout as the rest of the family. Partial population is more defensible on this chassis than on the SFF variants because the most common LFF workloads (backup target, archive, departmental file server) do not consume the bandwidth that full population delivers.

Supported DIMM types:

• RDIMM: Standard enterprise choice. Up to 64 GB per DIMM, 1.5 TB total at full population. Most LFF builds size between 64 GB and 384 GB, well below the RDIMM ceiling.
• LRDIMM: Up to 128 GB per DIMM, 3 TB total. Rarely the right answer on this chassis; the LFF workload profile does not justify the LRDIMM premium.
• Intel Optane Persistent Memory (PMem): Cascade Lake L-series CPUs only. Not a typical LFF chassis workload pattern; if Optane is in the design, the chassis choice probably should not be the 8-Bay LFF.
• NVDIMM-N: Niche; not applicable on typical LFF workloads.

Memory sizing by workload: Pure backup target with Veeam or similar deduplication-aware application: 96 to 192 GB. Departmental file server: 128 to 256 GB. Build server with compute alongside storage: 256 to 512 GB. Media archive with retrieval indexing: 128 to 256 GB. Calculate memory against the actual workload, not the chassis maximum. The full-population speed-step penalty (DDR4-2666 at 2 DPC vs 2933 at 1 DPC on Gold 6200 / 5222) matters less here than on the compute-first chassis variants because the workloads are not memory-bandwidth-sensitive.

Mixing rules: Match ranks, capacity, and timing within a channel. We do not quote mixed configurations for production builds.

Networking and PCIe Expansion

NDC options: Spinning disk sequential throughput on an 8-drive array tops out around 2 GB/s aggregate sustained read, well below the 10 GbE saturation point. The networking requirement on this chassis is about workload pattern, not raw bandwidth:

• 4x 1 GbE: Functional for low-throughput backup or file-serving workloads at remote sites where 1 GbE is the available WAN. Acceptable in genuinely bandwidth-constrained remote contexts.
• 2x 10 GbE SFP+ plus 2x 1 GbE: The baseline for most departmental file server and backup target deployments. 10 GbE for the data path, 1 GbE for management. The most common NDC on this chassis.
• 4x 10 GbE SFP+: For backup targets receiving from multiple production hosts simultaneously where the link aggregation matters. The right call for Veeam repositories serving large environments.
• 2x 25 GbE SFP28: Overprovisioned for most LFF workloads. Quote on request but typically a sign that the network was sized for a different chassis class.

PCIe expansion: Up to 8 PCIe Gen3 slots with both CPUs populated, depending on riser configuration. The 8-Bay LFF preserves the full riser budget structurally. Common builds: external SAS HBA for connecting to a JBOD shelf (extending the storage tier past the 8-bay limit when capacity needs grow), tape HBA for LTO backup library connection, Fibre Channel HBA for SAN-attached secondary storage replication targets, or a separated management NIC. Multi-card builds are uncommon on this chassis; the workload mix typically does not require the full PCIe budget.

GPU Support

The R740 2U envelope supports up to 3 double-width 300W GPUs or up to 6 single-width 150W GPUs, but GPU configurations on the 8-Bay 3.5" are uncommon. The typical use case for this chassis is bulk storage with compute attached, not GPU compute with storage attached. Single-card GPU configurations are workable (a low-profile NVIDIA T4 alongside an 8-drive NL-SAS archive for media transcode or local analytics over archived data, for example), but multi-GPU builds on this chassis are unusual; at that point the workload is usually better matched to a different chassis.

For any GPU configuration on this chassis, we validate against Dell's thermal restriction tables at quote time. The 8-Bay 3.5" thermal profile is different from the SFF variants because of the larger drive form factor and slightly different airflow geometry; the validated combinations are not always intuitive.

Management - iDRAC9 Generation

iDRAC9 Enterprise: Required for production deployment. Remote KVM, virtual media, predictive analytics, Group Manager for fleet-scale operations, Quick Sync 2 wireless management, and Silicon Root of Trust. iDRAC9 Express is not suitable for unattended datacenter deployment because the remote console functionality is restricted to local console access only.

Security baseline: Silicon Root of Trust anchors firmware verification in immutable silicon. System Lockdown mode prevents unauthorized firmware changes after deployment. TPM 2.0 module supported and recommended for any deployment subject to NIST 800-171, CMMC, FedRAMP, HIPAA, or PCI DSS compliance frameworks. Backup target servers in particular carry production data on disk; the security baseline matters as much here as on the production-data chassis.

Lifecycle Controller and OpenManage Enterprise: Same Dell management plane as the rest of the R740 family. Lifecycle Controller for per-chassis firmware orchestration; OpenManage Enterprise for fleet-scale firmware compliance, configuration drift detection, and warranty status tracking. OpenManage's SMART data aggregation across the fleet is genuinely useful on LFF chassis where drive lifecycle management is a recurring operational task.

Power and Cooling

3.5" HDDs draw more power than 2.5" SSDs (8 to 12W per drive at sustained load vs 2 to 4W for SSD), and spin-up current on large drives is significantly higher than steady-state. PSU sizing for this chassis accounts for both:

• Light (Silver CPUs, partial RAM, 4 NL-SAS HDDs): 2x 495W Platinum, peak draw approximately 290W
• Balanced (Gold 5218, full RAM, 8x 16 TB NL-SAS): 2x 750W Platinum, peak draw approximately 510W
• Heavy (Gold 6230, full RAM, 8x 20 TB NL-SAS, single low-profile GPU): 2x 1100W Platinum, peak draw approximately 720W

Hot-swap redundant Dell Flex Slot PSUs in 495W Platinum, 750W Platinum, 750W Titanium, 1100W Platinum, 1600W Platinum, 2000W Platinum, and 2400W Platinum. Always spec redundant. The 2000W and 2400W tiers are typically overprovisioned for this chassis.

Spin-up current consideration: Large-capacity NL-SAS and SATA drives draw significantly more current at spin-up than steady state. Staggered spin-up is managed by the RAID controller and BIOS, which handles this for a single unit cleanly. For multi-unit deployments on shared PDUs, account for spin-up surge in rack power sizing. A rack of LFF servers spinning up simultaneously after a power event can trip PDU breakers. Our team includes this calculation as part of every multi-unit LFF quote, and the 495W PSU pairing is borderline for an 8-drive simultaneous spin-up; we recommend 750W or higher as the floor on any production 8-Bay LFF build.

Thermal: Six hot-plug redundant fans standard. LFF chassis airflow is slightly different from SFF because of the larger drive form factor; standard fan configuration is sufficient for typical NL-SAS workload thermal profiles. ASHRAE A3 (40C) extended ambient support is achievable with the high-performance fan kit but uncommon on LFF builds where ambient is usually closer to A2 in standard datacenter and backup-target deployment contexts.

Physical Specs & Platform Notes

• Form factor: 2U rack server. Approximately 86.8mm H x 482mm W x 715mm D with bezel and standard cable management. Fits standard 1000mm-depth datacenter cabinets with cable management arm. Standard 19-inch rack mount with Dell ReadyRails II.
• PCIe expansion: Up to 8 PCIe Gen3 slots with both CPUs populated, depending on riser configuration. The 8-Bay LFF preserves the full riser budget structurally. Multi-card builds are uncommon on this chassis; the workload mix typically does not need them. Riser configuration is locked at order time and not field-swappable.
• Parts availability: Strong. The 8-Bay 3.5" backplane is less common than the SFF variants in the secondary market but Dell parts coverage remains active and refurbished units are readily available. PERC controllers, NDC cards, riser kits, fan modules, and PSUs are the same as the rest of the R740 family. Large-capacity NL-SAS drives are widely available; we assess remaining drive life via SMART data on every refurbished drive before inclusion in a configuration.
• Accessories we recommend: Dell LCD bezel for the R740 2U chassis (confirm part number at quote time against your chassis revision and whether security bezel is required), Dell ReadyRails II static or sliding rails, and the Dell cable management arm. The CMA is genuinely worth the cost on LFF deployments; rear-of-rack service on a fully-cabled 2U with eight populated 3.5" drives is meaningfully easier with the CMA installed.
• Platform notes: Boot must use BOSS on this chassis (dedicating one of eight large drives to OS is too expensive). CPU hot-plug is not supported. NDC swap requires powered-down access. Drive bays are hot-swap but rebuild times on 16 TB+ drives are measured in days, so plan for a degraded array as the steady state during any failure. RAID 5 is not safe at this drive capacity; RAID 6 or RAID 60 is the floor for production data. No mid-bay or rear-bay options on the R740 8-Bay 3.5": unlike the R740xd, this chassis cannot be expanded with mid-drive trays or rear flex bays because the R740 chassis lacks the internal cabling routes and PSU power budget for additional drive bays.

Our Assessment

Where it excels: Backup target servers running Veeam, Commvault, Veritas, or rsync-style archive endpoints where streaming-write to NL-SAS is the workload and 8 large drives is enough capacity. Departmental file servers with moderate capacity needs under 150 TB raw, where 8 NL-SAS drives in RAID 6 deliver the right cost-per-TB. Media archive and cold-storage nodes where retrieval is occasional and capacity-per-bay matters more than IOPS. Build server scratch storage where the chassis is CPU-balanced with a large local working set (build caches, media transcode scratch, backup staging). Log aggregation and data warehouse staging endpoints with sequential I/O patterns and bounded capacity.

Where to look instead: If you need more than 8 LFF bays of capacity, the R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" (or R740xd2 24-Bay 3.5" for serious bulk storage) is the right call; the R740xd is the storage-dense companion in the 2U family specifically designed for capacity-heavy deployments. If your workload is random-IOPS-sensitive (databases, virtualization, VDI), NL-SAS 7.2K delivers 100 to 200 IOPS per drive which is not enough for those workloads; the R740 16-Bay 2.5" with SAS SSDs is the right chassis. If your workload is compute-first with storage on a SAN, the R740 8-Bay 2.5" is the SFF compute-first variant. If your storage architecture is NVMe-first, the R740xd 24-Bay 2.5" NVMe variant is the right chassis. If 1U is a hard rack-density constraint and 4 LFF bays is enough, the R640 4-Bay 3.5" is the 1U LFF companion.

Bottom line: The 8-Bay 3.5" is a precision pick. It earns its place when 2U is the form factor, capacity matters more than IOPS, and 8 LFF bays is enough to carry the workload. For backup targets, departmental file servers, and media archive deployments in 2U, this is the right chassis. For anything that needs more bays, more performance, or random-I/O response, look elsewhere. We will not quote this chassis when the workload mismatch is obvious; we would rather steer the customer to the right configuration than ship hardware that disappoints in production.

Where the R740 Fits in 2026

The R740 family is 2 to 3 generations behind current Dell production (R750 15th gen / R760 16th gen). The 16-Bay 2.5" page covers the generational ladder, support status, and the full Dell ProSupport vs third-party maintenance picture in 2026. 8-Bay 3.5" specifically: the LFF design point is increasingly rare on newer Dell 2U platforms because the storage industry has moved capacity workloads to either high-bay-count 2U chassis like the R750xd and R760xd or to dedicated object storage platforms. The R740 8-Bay 3.5" remains a strong cost-performance pick for the specific 8-bay LFF use case in 2026, particularly for backup-target and departmental file server deployments where 14th gen fleet standardization keeps procurement on this platform. For new greenfield deployments where capacity is the primary requirement, the R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" or R750xd 12-Bay 3.5" deliver more bay count per chassis and are typically the better long-term fit.

Honest Limitations

• Only 8 LFF bays, no mid-bay or rear-bay options. Capacity-per-bay is high with 20 TB drives but the chassis tops out at 160 TB raw. The R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" reaches 240 TB raw on the front bays alone plus rear-bay options. Unlike the R740xd, the R740 8-Bay 3.5" cannot be expanded with mid-drive trays or rear flex bays because the R740 chassis lacks the internal cabling routes and PSU power budget for additional drive bays.
• LFF spinning disk is slow vs SFF SSD. 3.5" NL-SAS delivers 100 to 200 IOPS per drive, orders of magnitude below SSD. For random-IOPS-heavy workloads (databases, virtualization, VDI), the SFF variants of the R740 are the correct choice. The LFF chassis is purpose-built for capacity, not IOPS.
• RAID 5 is not safe on large-capacity LFF. Rebuild times on 16 TB to 20 TB drives stretch into 24 to 36 hours under load. The probability of a second drive failure during a rebuild is non-trivial. We will not quote RAID 5 for large-capacity spinning disk arrays. RAID 6 or RAID 60 is the floor for production data on this chassis.
• Boot drive must use BOSS. With only eight bays, dedicating one to OS boot is too expensive when each bay can hold 16 TB or 20 TB of capacity. The BOSS module is mandatory on every serious LFF build.
• Spin-up current matters at scale. A rack of LFF servers spinning up simultaneously after a power event can trip PDU breakers. Staggered spin-up handles single-unit cases; datacenter PDU sizing must account for the surge across multiple chassis. 495W PSU pairing is borderline for an 8-drive simultaneous spin-up; we recommend 750W or higher as the floor on production 8-Bay LFF builds.
• NL-SAS rebuild windows are long. 16 TB and 20 TB drive rebuilds on a degraded RAID 6 take 24 to 36 hours under load. Plan maintenance windows accordingly. This is a physics constraint of spinning disk capacity scaling, not a chassis limitation, but it affects how you operate the array.
• Refurbished spinning disk has finite life. NL-SAS and SATA HDDs have measurable hours and reallocated-sector counts that we assess on every refurbished drive via SMART data. Drives at the end of useful life are replaced or disclosed and priced accordingly. Spinning disk ages differently than SSD; you should know what you are buying.
• PCIe Gen3, not Gen4. The R740 predates PCIe Gen4. For workloads where per-slot bandwidth matters, the R750 or R760 are the better long-term call.
• 14th gen, not current production. Dell's current 2U production platform is the R760. The R740 represents strong refurbished value in 2026 but is not new hardware.

Workload Fit

Where to Look Instead

• Need more than 8 LFF bays? The R740xd 12-Bay 3.5" is the storage-dense 2U companion specifically designed for capacity-heavy deployments. It adds rear-bay and mid-bay options for up to 18 LFF total. For serious bulk storage, the R740xd2 24-Bay 3.5" is the next step up. The 8-Bay 3.5" is the right chassis only when 1U-equivalent compute balance with bulk storage is the design point.
• Need SSD primary storage in 2U? The R740 16-Bay 2.5" is the SFF density flagship. SAS SSD or SATA SSD in a 16-bay layout is the right call for random-IOPS-sensitive workloads.
• Compute-first with SAN-backed storage? The R740 8-Bay 2.5" is the SFF compute-first variant for SQL Server consolidation, application tier, and SAN-attached virtualization hosts.
• Need NVMe? The R740xd 24-Bay 2.5" NVMe variant is the all-NVMe specialist in the R740xd family. No R740 chassis supports front NVMe.
• 1U LFF companion? The R640 4-Bay 3.5" is the 1U LFF capacity outlier on the R640 platform. The right call when 1U is a hard rack-density constraint and 4 LFF bays is enough.
• HPE-side equivalent? The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 12-Bay 3.5" is the closest HPE LFF analog (HPE's DL380 Gen10 LFF goes to 12 bays in the 2U chassis vs the R740's 8-bay ceiling; for direct R740 8-Bay 3.5" equivalence, the DL380 Gen10 8-LFF configuration is the closest match on the same Intel Purley platform).
• Need PCIe Gen4 or DDR5? The R750 (15th gen) or R760 (16th gen) bring forward-generation features at appropriate price premiums.

Ready to Configure?

LFF configurations benefit from a capacity and RAID-level discussion before quoting. The right RAID level for large spinning disk has real implications for usable capacity, rebuild time, and data protection. Tell us your target capacity (TB usable, not raw), workload type (backup target, archive, departmental file server, build scratch), drive capacity preference (12 TB to 20 TB), CPU sizing relative to workload (most LFF builds run Silver or low-end Gold CPUs cleanly), NDC choice, and quantity. Our account team returns a fully validated configuration with formal pricing within 24 hours, including RAID-level sizing math, spin-up current calculation for multi-unit deployments, and confirmed drive remaining-life assessment via SMART data on the refurbished drives we ship. Every refurbished unit ships with the Wholesale Servers 180-day warranty and 12+ hour burn-in testing, and volume pricing starts at 5 units. Call 1-800-778-1545 or use the quote form below.