DELL PowerEdge R730xd 2U rack server 2x Xeon E5-2680 v3 2.5GHz 12-core 256GB DDR4 24x 1.2TB SAS H730

2U 24-bay SAS server

This Dell PowerEdge R730xd is a 2U rack server built for dense storage workloads. It carries two Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 processors, each with 12 cores at 2.5 GHz and a 3.3 GHz turbo frequency. The system includes 256 GB of DDR4 2133 MHz registered ECC memory across eight 32 GB modules. Twenty-four 1.2 TB 10K SAS drives are managed by a PERC H730 controller with 1 GB cache.

Storage-dense workloads, not GPU or all-flash

The 24-bay 2.5-inch chassis and 12 Gb/s SAS backbone suit databases, virtual desktop infrastructure and data-warehouse nodes that need high spindle count. Buyers who need all-flash performance or GPU compute density should look elsewhere. The quad-port X520/I350 daughter card provides two 1 GbE and two 10 Gb SFP+ links for cluster interconnects.

PERC H730 RAID with battery-backed cache

The installed PERC H730 supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60 plus pass-through mode. Its 1 GB battery-backed cache protects in-flight writes during power loss. Twenty-four drive bays are wired to this single controller, so the RAID level you choose determines usable capacity and fault tolerance.