DELL PowerEdge R740xd 24SFF 2x Xeon Gold 5218R 256GB RAM No Drive rack server

Dense 24-bay compute platform

The Dell PowerEdge R740xd packs 24 small-form-factor drive bays into a 2U rack chassis. Two Xeon Gold 5218R processors deliver 40 cores at 2.1 GHz with 27.5 MB cache each. 256 GB of DDR4 ECC registered memory and a PERC H730P RAID controller come pre-installed. Dual 1100 W supplies and iDRAC9 Enterprise remote management complete the foundation.

Suits storage-heavy workloads; not for GPU density

This configuration targets databases, virtualisation clusters and software-defined storage that benefit from high local drive counts and dual-socket CPU throughput. The integrated graphics and lack of GPU riser space make it unsuitable for visual-compute or AI training tasks. Organisations needing more than two sockets or specialised accelerator slots should evaluate alternative platforms.

24 x 2.5-inch SAS bay count dictates capacity

The chassis accepts up to twenty-four 2.5-inch SAS drives behind the PERC H730P controller, setting the raw storage limit before any expansion shelves. No drives ship with the unit, so buyers must populate bays to activate the storage layer. Matching drive quantity and RAID level to application IOPS is the single decision that determines whether this server meets the requirement.