DELL PowerEdge R740 2U Rack Server Gold 6148 20C 64GB 2x 800GB SAS SSD H730P

2U rack server for dense compute

The Dell PowerEdge R740 fits in a 2U rack space and ships with a single Intel Gold 6148 processor running at 2.4 GHz with 20 cores and 27.5 MB cache. It is aimed at workloads that need high core density in a compact footprint such as virtualisation clusters, database nodes or HPC head units. Buyers who need dual-socket performance or more than 64 GB of memory out of the box should look at larger configurations.

Front-access drive bays and redundant power

The chassis provides eight 2.5-inch drive bays populated with two 800 GB SAS SSDs behind an H730P RAID controller. Hot-swap trays let you replace drives without downtime while the 1100 W redundant power supplies keep the system running through a single supply failure. Network I/O comes from an Intel X550 controller delivering two 10 Gb RJ45 ports and two 1 Gb RJ45 ports, and remote management is handled by iDRAC9 Enterprise.

Upgrades from single-socket 14G platforms

Moving from an older single-socket 14G server adds 20 cores, DDR4 memory at 2666 MT/s and PCIe Gen 3 expansion across up to eight slots. The jump is worthwhile when your current host is CPU-bound or when you need the extra drive bays and 10 Gb networking without moving to a dual-socket box. Organisations already standardised on dual-socket R740s will not gain density from this unit.