Dell PowerEdge R730xd
Storage-dense 2U sibling of the R730 (Xeon E5-2600 v3/v4, 24 DDR4 DIMMs, up to 6 PCIe 3.0 slots) with up to 16 × 3.5" (12 front + 4 mid-tray), 24 × 2.5" (up to 4 NVMe) or 18 × 1.8" + 8 × 3.5" drives, plus two rear 2.5" bays. Suited to data-intensive work such as medical imaging, email servers and software-defined storage; no GPU support.
Memory
- Slots
- 24 DDR4 DIMM sockets (12 per CPU, 4 channels × 3 DIMMs)
- DIMMs
- RDIMM 4/8 GB single rank, 8/16/32 GB dual rank; LRDIMM 64/128 GB quad rank (2015 guide: 4–32 GB; 2017 configurator: 4–32 GB RDIMM at 2400 MT/s)
- Speed
- 1333, 1600, 1866, 2133 or 2400 MT/s depending on DIMM type, DIMMs per channel and CPU; 3 DIMMs per channel run at 1866 MT/s or lower (2015 guide)
- Max
- 3 TB (24 × 128 GB LRDIMM); 1.5 TB with one CPU; RDIMM max 768 GB (384 GB with one CPU). The configuration diagram shows 16 × 128 GB at 2400 MT/s or 24 × 64 GB at 2133 MT/s
- Min
- 4 GB with one CPU; 8 GB with two (one DIMM per CPU)
- Rules
- One DIMM type per system (RDIMM or LRDIMM); at most two capacities, largest first; at most two rank types
- RAS
- Advanced ECC, SDDC, rank sparing, intra-socket mirroring, demand and patrol scrubbing, address parity, thermal throttling
Storage
- 3.5" chassis
- 12 × 3.5" front + optional 2 × 2.5" rear (14 drives); or 12 × 3.5" + 4 × 3.5" in a mid-chassis tray + 2 × 2.5" rear (18 drives)
- 2.5" chassis
- 24 × 2.5" + optional 2 × 2.5" rear (26 drives); or 20 × 2.5" + 4 × 2.5" NVMe Express Flash (bays 20–23) + optional 2 rear
- 1.8" chassis
- 18 × 1.8" SATA SSD + 8 × 3.5" + 2 × 2.5" rear (28 drives)
- Max capacity (2017)
- Up to 131.6 TB (16 × 8 TB NL-SAS + 2 × 1.8 TB); 46.8 TB with 26 × 1.8 TB 2.5" SAS
- Internal RAID
- Mini PERC in a dedicated slot: PERC H330, H730 (1 GB cache), H730P (2 GB cache); no S130 software RAID
- Split backplane
- The 24 × 2.5" backplane can be zoned across two PERC H730P controllers: 12+12, 4+20, 8+16, 16+8 or 20+4
- External
- PERC H830 (8-port 12 Gb/s SAS, 2 GB cache); 12 Gb/s SAS HBA (non-RAID)
- Boot / flash
- Internal Dual SD Module (mirrored); rear vFlash SD slot with iDRAC8 Enterprise
- SATADOM
- Factory option: 64 GB SLC SATADOM internal boot drive on its own controller (validated for software-defined storage such as ScaleIO; not recommended as a general-purpose boot device)
- Optical / tape
- No internal optical drive and no internal backup device
Graphics
- Onboard
- Matrox G200eR2 in iDRAC8, 16 MB; up to 1280 × 1024 at 75 Hz, 1440 × 900 at 60 Hz
- GPU
- Not supported (no internal or external GPUs)
Expansion
- Riser 1
- Slots 1–3: low profile, half length, PCIe 3.0 x8 (x16 connector), CPU2
- Riser 2
- Slot 4: full height, full length, x16, CPU2; Slot 5: full height, full length, x8 (x16 connector), CPU1
- Riser 3
- Slot 6: full height, full length, x16, CPU1
- Other
- Dedicated mini-PERC slot and NDC slot; slots 1–4 unusable with one CPU; slots are not hot-swappable; NVMe drives use an NVMe expansion card fitted in a riser
Networking
- NDC (Select Network Adapter)
- 4 × 1GbE (Broadcom 5720 default, Intel I350); 2 × 1GbE + 2 × 10GbE (QLogic 57800 SFP+ or BASE-T, Intel I350/X540 BASE-T, Intel I350/X520 SFP+, Intel I350/X710 SFP+); 4 × 10GbE (QLogic 57840S SFP+, Intel X710 SFP+)
- NDC features
- 1GbE-only cards lack TOE, iSCSI/FCoE offload, SR-IOV and NPAR; the 10GbE cards support them (offloads on 10GbE ports only)
- Add-in cards
- Broadcom 5719/5720 1GbE, Intel I350 1GbE, Intel X540 10GBASE-T, Intel X520/X710 SFP+, QLogic 57810 10GbE, Emulex OCe14102 10GbE, Mellanox ConnectX-3 10/40GbE and FDR VPI, Emulex/QLogic 8 and 16 Gb Fibre Channel HBAs
Power
- PSU options
- 495 W AC Platinum, 750 W AC Platinum, 750 W AC Titanium (200–240 V), 1100 W AC Platinum, 1100 W DC (−48 to −60 V), 750 W AC/240 V DC mixed mode (China only)
- Redundancy
- Two hot-plug PSUs, 1+1 redundant; six hot-swap fans, N+1
- Matching
- Both PSUs must be the same type and wattage; use PSUs with the Extended Power Performance (EPP) label. Mixing AC and DC, or PSUs from earlier PowerEdge generations, causes a mismatch or failure to power on. The 750 W Titanium PSU runs on 200–240 V only.
Ports
- Front
- USB management port / iDRAC Direct (USB 2.0), VGA
- Rear
- VGA, serial (DB9, 16550), 2 × USB 3.0, iDRAC8 Enterprise port, 4 NDC ports, vFlash SD slot, system ID button
- Internal
- 1 × USB 3.0, dual SD module
Physical
- Form factor
- 2U rack
- Dimensions
- 87.3 mm H × 444.0 mm W × 684.0 mm D (482.4 mm across rack ears; 723.0 mm to the PSU handles, plus 18.0 mm front ears, 32.0 mm with bezel)
- Weight
- 30.4 kg (2.5"), 36.5 kg (3.5"), 33.2 kg (3.5" + 1.8") maximum per the 2021 manual; the 2015 guide lists 29.5 / 32.5 kg max
- Operating temp
- 10–35 °C; Fresh Air 5–40 °C continuous and −5–45 °C for ≤1% of hours in supported configurations
- Rails
- ReadyRails II sliding rails (B6, optional CMA) or static rails (B4, also 2-post)
- Acoustics
- Typical 3.5" config: 32 dBA idle, 43 dBA operating (LpA); 24 × 2.5" is the quietest chassis, 8 × 3.5" + 18 × 1.8" the loudest
Management
- BMC
- iDRAC8 with Lifecycle Controller: Express standard, Enterprise upgrade (activates the dedicated iDRAC port and 8/16 GB vFlash SD media)
- At the box
- iDRAC Direct (front USB management port), LED status panel, iDRAC Quick Sync via optional NFC bezel (factory-installed only)
- Software
- IPMI 2.0, DCMI 1.5; OpenManage Essentials, OpenManage Mobile, OpenManage Power Center; OpenManage Integrations for Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter; OpenManage Connections for HP, IBM Tivoli and CA consoles
- Security
- TPM 1.2 (2015 guide); chassis intrusion switch; lockable bezel; BIOS power/NMI button lockout
- iDRAC8 lifecycle
- iDRAC8 end of sale December 2021, end of software maintenance February 2024; last firmware 2.86.86.86
Operating systems
- Launch (2015 guide)
- Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, 2012 and 2012 R2 (Hyper-V); Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 and 7.0; SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 and 12; VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1/5.5; Citrix XenServer 6.2 SP1
- Factory installs (2017)
- Windows Server 2016 Standard/Datacenter, Windows Server 2012 R2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.2, Citrix XenServer 7.0
- Failsafe hypervisor
- Internal Dual SD Module mirrors an embedded hypervisor (ESXi, XenServer, Hyper-V) across two SD cards
Processors
- Intel Xeon E5-2699A v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2699 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2698 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2697A v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2697 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2695 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2683 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2667 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2660 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2650 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2650L v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2643 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2640 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2637 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2630L v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2623 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2609 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2603 v4
- Intel Xeon E5-2699 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2698 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2695 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2683 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2670 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2667 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2660 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2650 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2650L v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2640 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2637 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2630L v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2623 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2609 v3
- Intel Xeon E5-2603 v3