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Dell PowerEdge R730 Server Review

Dell PowerEdge R730 Server Review 16 July 2023

The R730 server from Dell's PowerEdge series stands out for its flexibility and functionality, so this option is a versatile solution. The great popularity of this server was the fruit of powerful central processors from Intel and support for a large amount of permanent and temporary memory. Special attention should be paid to the storage scalability, as PowerEdge R730 supports up to 16 SAS disks 12 gigabytes per second. These disks use the PowerEdge high-performance RAID controller 12 gigabytes per second.

Dell PowerEdge R730

The Dell poweredge r730 server uses Dell Fluid Cache application acceleration technology under SanDisk DAS Cache and SAN. This feature can significantly increase I/O performance under VDI and OLTP workloads, as well as provide lower network latency. The R730 has an Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 CPU, and the server supports 24 DIMM modules of DDR4 temporary memory. Simply put, the R730 is an ideal solution for data centers and cloud platforms because it is capable of handling threads and loops.

Dell PowerEdge R730

Dell PowerEdge R730 specifications

From a technical point of view, the PowerEdge Dell r730 has a fairly good performance, to be more precise:

  • Processor - all processors of Intel Xeon E5 2600 v3 family;
  • Operating system - Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Novell SUSE Linux Corporate Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, VMware ESX, Chipset: Intel C610 series chipset;
  • Memory capacity - Up to 1.5TB (24 DIMM slots): 8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB DDR4 up to 2133 MT per second
  • Built-in hypervisor - Not required;
  • Additional supported hypervisors - Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere ESXi;
  • Storage - Hard drive: SAS, SATA, nearline SAS SSD: SAS, SATA. 16 x 2.5-inch - up to 32TB on 2TB hot-swappable SAS hard drives. 8 x 3.5" - Up to 64TB on 8TB hot-swappable NL SAS drives;
  • Disk bays - Internal hard drive bay and hot-swappable backplane. Up to 16 x 2.5-inch hard drives: SAS, SATA, nearline SAS SSDs: SAS, SATA. Up to 8 x 3.5" HDDs: SAS, SATA, nearline SAS SSDs: SAS, SATA;
  • Slots - Slot Configuration #1:
    Slot 1: Half length, half height, low profile PCIe Gen3 x8 bracket (x16 connector).
    Slot 2: Half-length, half-height, low-profile PCIe Gen3 x8 bracket (x16 connector).
    Slot 3: Half-length, half-height, low-profile PCIe Gen3 x8 bracket (x16 connector).
    Slot 4: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x16 (x16 connector).
    Slot 5: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x8 (x16 connector).
    Slot 6: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x8 (x16 connector).
    Slot 7: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x8 (x16 connector). Separate RAID card slot.
    Slot Configuration #2:
    Slot 1: Half length, half height, low profile PCIe Gen3 x8 bracket (x16 connector).
    Slot 2: Half-length, half-height, low-profile PCIe Gen3 x8 bracket (x16 connector).
    Slot 3: Half-length, half-height, low-profile PCIe Gen3 x8 bracket (x16 connector).
    Slot 4: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x16 (x16 connector).
    Slot 5: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x8 (x16 connector).
    Slot 6: Full length, full height, PCIe Gen3 x16 (x16 connector). Separate RAID card slot;
  • RAID controllers - Internal: PERS S130, PERC H330, PERC H730, PERC H730P. External: PERC H830;
  • Network controller: 4 x 1Gb, 2 x 1Gb + 2 x 10Gb, 4 x 10Gb.
Dell PowerEdge R730

Design and Build

In many ways, the appearance of the R730 server is similar to other rack-mounted servers from the same manufacturer. This system allows the installation of two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors, up to 24 DIMM modules and 16 SSDs or hard drives. There are drive bays on the front of the R730 that can be put in these configurations: 16 2.5" bays or 8 2.5" bays.

Dell PowerEdge R730

Management

All PowerEdge series servers run the same software, namely OMSA and the OME system control console. This server is equipped with iDRAC8 with a lifecycle controller. OpenManage Server Administrator is used to deploy agent-based controllers, with the technology offering individual control of the server from the command line or web interface.

Performance

The R730 has gained enormous popularity over the past few years and has been used to handle difficult processes. This server shows excellent results with SQL Server and MySQL database workflows. The same performance was shown in the VMmark virtualization benchmark.

Conclusion

If you need a versatile server at an affordable price, the PowerEdge family of systems from Dell is the best solution. These servers are powerful systems with a variety of features and advanced technologies. In particular, the R730 is especially popular because it has everything that medium and small businesses need.


Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 1536 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 8SFF Bay 2.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 1536 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 16SFF Bay 2.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 1536 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 8LFF Bay 3.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 12LFF Bay 3.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 12LFF + 2SFF Bay 3.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 16LFF + 2SFF Bay 3.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 24SFF Bay 2.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 24SFF (4x NVME) Bay 2.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 26SFF Bay 2.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)
Dell
  • 2U (rackmount)
  • up to 2 Xeon E5-2600v3/v4
  • up to 3072 GB (24 x DDR4)
  • 26SFF (4x NVME) Bay 2.5" (Hot Swap)
  • 2 x PSU (Hot Plug)