CONFIGURE & QUOTE - Dell PowerEdge T560 8-Bay 2.5" Tower [16th Gen: New]

The T560 8-Bay 2.5" is the entry SFF configuration of Dell’s 16th gen tower platform: eight 2.5" hot-swap bays supporting SAS, SATA SSDs, and NVMe drives via the H965i tri-mode controller. We deploy this variant when a buyer wants current-gen compute in a tower form factor with SSD-density storage but doesn’t need the 16-Bay or 24-Bay headcount. SQL Server departmental databases, ROBO virtualization hosts running SSD-backed datastores, and small VDI deployments are the typical fit.

If you need more SFF capacity or higher VM density, look at the T560 16-Bay 2.5" instead. If you need bulk LFF capacity rather than IOPS density, the T560 12-Bay 3.5" canonical page is where to go.

What’s Different About This Chassis

Two things: 8 SFF bays instead of 16 (or vs. the LFF siblings, 2.5" bays instead of 3.5"), and the Universal Backplane v2 supports NVMe via the H965i’s tri-mode capability. Everything else about the platform is identical to the canonical 12-Bay 3.5": same motherboard, same processor support, same memory architecture, same RAID controllers, same OCP networking, same iDRAC9, same PSU lineup, same GPU envelope.

NVMe option on this chassis: The Universal Backplane v2 on the SFF T560 variants supports a mix of SAS, SATA, and PCIe NVMe drives in the same chassis when paired with the H965i. This is one of the genuine advantages of the SFF chassis over the LFF: you can run a small NVMe tier for hot data alongside SAS SSDs for warm data in the same server. The 12-Bay 3.5" can’t do this. If tiered storage in a tower matters, the SFF chassis is the answer.

When the 8-Bay 2.5" is the right call: SQL Server or PostgreSQL departmental databases on 8 enterprise SAS SSDs or NVMe drives. ROBO Hyper-V or vSphere hosts where 8 SFF SSDs give enough VM density for a branch office. Small VDI deployments (20 to 40 desktops). Workloads where IOPS matter more than per-bay capacity and 8 spindles is genuinely enough.

When to step up to the 16-Bay 2.5" sibling: VDI scaling beyond 40 desktops, vSAN OSA deployments (which want at least 4 capacity drives per disk group and 2 cache drives, repeated across hosts), or any workload where a year-over-year SSD expansion is plausible. The 16-Bay has the same chassis with twice the bay count, and the upgrade is not field-doable.

Processors, Memory, RAID, Networking, GPU, PSU, Management

All shared with the T560 12-Bay 3.5" canonical page. The processors are 4th Gen Sapphire Rapids and 5th Gen Emerald Rapids in the same socket (drop-in compatible). Memory is 16 DDR5 RDIMM slots, 1.5 TB max, 5200 MT/s on 5th gen. Top RAID pick is the PERC H965i (Series 12, 8 GB FBWC, tri-mode SAS4/SATA/Gen4 NVMe RAID, the only PERC that does Gen5 NVMe RAID 5/6/10). Networking is OCP 3.0 plus 2 × 1 GbE LOM. Up to 6 PCIe slots. GPU envelope is up to 2 × 300W double-wide or 6 × 75W single-wide. PSU options from 600W to 2800W, hot-swap redundant. Management is iDRAC9 Enterprise (NOT iDRAC10). Boot is BOSS-N1 (NVMe M.2 hardware RAID 1, hot-swap).

See the T560 12-Bay 3.5" page for the full platform breakdown including specific CPU SKU recommendations, memory population guidance, GPU thermal tradeoffs, and physical specs.

RAID and NVMe Guidance for the 8-Bay SFF Array

SSD economics change the RAID conversation. RAID 5 across 8 SAS SSDs is a perfectly reasonable configuration; SSD rebuild times are short enough that the URE math that disqualifies RAID 5 on spinning disk doesn’t apply. RAID 10 is our default for write-intensive databases (SQL Server transaction logs especially). RAID 6 is the call when capacity matters more than write performance.

NVMe-specific guidance: If the configuration includes PCIe Gen4 NVMe drives, the H965i is the only PERC that does hardware RAID 5/6/10 on them. PERC H355 and H755 Front handle SAS/SATA only. PERC H755N does hardware RAID on Gen4 NVMe but lacks the 8 GB cache of the H965i. For tier-1 transactional workloads on NVMe in this chassis, the H965i is the controller we’d spec.

S160 software RAID is also available for NVMe-only configurations, but we don’t recommend it for production workloads where the CPU should be doing something more valuable than parity calculation.

BOSS-N1 boot module (2 × M.2 NVMe SSDs in hardware RAID 1, hot-swap) is included by default on every T560 we quote. Boot off the BOSS, not the front bays.

Power Supplies

SSDs draw less power than spinning drives, so peak draw at light and balanced configurations is meaningfully lower than the LFF siblings. The Titanium PSU options are quieter; on an 8-Bay 2.5" SFF tower deployed in an office, the 1100W Titanium is what we’d default to.

Our Assessment

The T560 8-Bay 2.5" is the SFF-tower configuration we recommend for IOPS-driven workloads at the small end: departmental SQL Server, ROBO virtualization with SSD datastores, and entry-level VDI hosts. It’s also the natural fit when a buyer wants the tower form factor and a tiered NVMe + SAS storage configuration.

It’s the wrong call when VM density needs are scaling (16-Bay 2.5" is the right sibling), when bulk capacity matters more than IOPS (12-Bay 3.5" canonical), or when memory ceiling becomes the binding constraint (rack siblings R660/R760).

Bottom line: Buy this when 8 SFF bays is the right answer to a known IOPS-bound workload. The H965i tri-mode controller and BOSS-N1 boot make this an unusually capable SSD platform in a tower form factor.

Workload Fit Matrix

Honest Limitations

8 bays is an upper bound, not a floor for growth. If you outgrow the 8-Bay 2.5" you can’t add more bays in-place. The backplane and cage are specific to the 8-bay configuration. Moving to 16 bays requires the 16-Bay chassis variant. If growth is plausible, start at 16-Bay.

NVMe RAID requires the H965i. Specifying PERC H755 or H355 on this chassis and then trying to add NVMe later is a controller upgrade. Plan the controller for the storage tier from day one.

Universal Backplane v2 NVMe lanes are finite. The chassis can mix SAS, SATA, and NVMe in the same backplane but the NVMe lane budget is shared. Eight all-NVMe is supported with the right configuration; mixed-tier configurations need to be sized at quote time. We’ll work this out before the BOM is finalized.

Platform-level limitations from the canonical apply here too. 1.5 TB memory ceiling, 5200 MT/s memory speed on Emerald Rapids, no DLC option, rail kit sold separately, acoustic profile steps up under heavy CPU/GPU load. See the T560 12-Bay 3.5" canonical page for full platform limitation detail.

Generation Context

The T560 is Dell’s current 16th gen tower platform (4th Gen Sapphire Rapids and 5th Gen Emerald Rapids in the same socket). It replaced the 15th gen T550. Forward investment horizon runs through 2030 at minimum.

vs. T560 16-Bay 2.5" sibling: Same chassis, twice the bay count. The 16-Bay is what we spec when SFF SSD/NVMe density actually matters: vSAN, larger VDI, multi-tenant virtualization, dense database hosts. The 8-Bay is the right call when 8 SSDs is the answer.

vs. T560 12-Bay 3.5" canonical sibling: The 12-Bay LFF is bulk capacity (up to 288 TB raw on 24 TB NL-SAS); the 8-Bay 2.5" SFF is IOPS density (up to ~120 TB on 15 TB enterprise SSDs, but at much higher random IOPS). Pick the SFF when the workload is IOPS-bound.

vs. T560 8-Bay 3.5" sibling: Same bay count, different drive format. The 3.5" sibling is the right call for spindle-based backup or file server roles. The 2.5" SFF (this page) is the right call for SSD-based workloads.

vs. 17th gen (no tower yet): Dell has not released a 17th gen tower as of 2026. The T560 is Dell’s current-generation tower.

Request a Quote

Tell us your workload, target memory capacity, storage requirements (SAS / SATA / NVMe mix and RAID level), GPU plans if any, and quantity. Our account team will put together a tailored T560 8-Bay 2.5" quote within 24 hours. Volume pricing applies at 5 units and above. 12+ hour burn-in test on every server. 180-day standard warranty included; 1, 2, and 3-year Premium options available.

Phone: 1-800-778-1545. Address: 70 Buford Highway, Suwanee, GA 30024. CAGE Code: 85RK3.