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Dell PowerEdge FX [EOL] vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerEdge FX [EOL]
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Apollo Systems
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Rack Servers (9th), Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

MP
IT Lead at Meditab Software, Inc.
Offers a user-friendly interface and saves costs in data centers
Dell PowerEdge FX is very good and user-friendly, with a console that is easy to manage, and it is budget-friendly compared to other products. Dell PowerEdge FX has made management very good and easy for us, and we have created virtual machines on these PowerEdge servers as well. The modular design of Dell PowerEdge FX is very beneficial for our IT operations because it is small and compact, fitting easily into our data center rack while saving physical space and power. They have a capable technical support team that helps to resolve issues, and their regular updates to hardware components and communication keep us up to date with challenges. Dell PowerEdge FX has some features that we noticed for supporting AI initiatives or data-intensive applications, but we are planning to explore all the features in depth.
Gökhan  DURMAZ - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at TD SYNNEX
High-quality integration and strong support have optimized our rack server operations
HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity. When I speak about integrity, I speak about GPU integration or other integrations such as GPU integration, backup software integration, and hypervisor integration. Regarding the integration of high-speed interconnectors in HPE Apollo Systems, they impact computational tasks because the high-speed interconnect affects performance. I don't remember the specifics. Regarding the cooling technologies, they help to reduce operational costs. The positive impact I see from HPE Apollo Systems is that support is good and quality is good. In general, HPE Apollo Systems appears to be for rack servers with some optimization capabilities.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The setup is straightforward. It can take anywhere from an hour to half a day."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it has very robust servers and a very heavy load. We've been working on servers now for 10 years and those servers are still up and running. Those servers are still very powerful until today."
"The best feature is PowerEdge's ability to stack up eight blade servers in one 2U chassis."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple and easy."
"The power efficiency is very good and nice."
"It's a stable and scalable solution our customers can rely on for their applications, especially physical applications."
"It has extremely high performance, and it is easy to manage."
"It is a scalable solution. My company hasn't faced any difficulties related to the product's performance and scalability since Dell ensures to provide a high-performance service."
"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."
"The most valuable feature is the amount of programming storage available."
"we can use the same platform for several use cases: Hadoop, Ceph, and we are considering the server for another use case right now. It's a single solution, we only have to integrate it once and we can use it for several technologies."
"It is a stable product; very reliable."
"For us, the most valuable features are the price and density."
"Apollo Systems provide stuff that standard services do not. More HTDs, more compute power, at very reasonable pricing."
"My advice for someone considering HPE Apollo Systems is that if they are looking for consolidation and their workload involves high availability requirements, or if they want to utilize GPUs, then this is a machine that should be considered instead of deploying multiple machines and multiple systems."
"It's going to meet our needs moving forward, it is scalable."
 

Cons

"When it comes to Dell PowerEdge FX, the area of concern revolves around the delivery time where improvements are required."
"There are times when a part might break down and we need to have Dell replace it."
"In terms of the cost, it is a little bit high, meaning, there is some difference in the cost compared to the equivalent product with HP servers."
"I don't have any technical issues, but I would like to see the commercial side improve as compared to all other OEMs."
"The system is good, but compared to open-source and assembled servers, it is somewhat costly."
"Before the cloud solution and virtualization, we relied on Dell hardware from specific vendors. The lifecycle for cloud infrastructure is shorter than it used to be. We need a longer lifecycle from the IT supplier providing the computing solution."
"I think that Dell has full documentation on their products, but it needs to be improved for this one."
"The positioning of the power supply is not ideal. Both of them are on the same side, so you need to untie the cabling when you're installing the server. Another thing is storage separation. The storage can only be used by a particular server blade. I want the ability to use a storage unit for more than one server."
"Big stability issues with the CPU on the first generation which made them virtually unusable."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
"The predictive analysis feature could be improved."
"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."
"The technical support for HPE Apollo Systems could be improved."
"We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE."
"There is a shared battery for all cache controllers in the node. When you have to replace that element, you have to take down all three nodes and not just one."
"Our first batch of Apollo servers that we got were so new that it was just hard to know kind of what to expect from HPE and what they wanted to deliver to us."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to other brands, this solution is the cheapest. I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."
"The price of Dell PowerEdge FX is affordable, and when compared to other solutions, such as Lenovo and HPE it is less expensive. There are any extra costs other than the standard solution."
"The price of the license is expensive."
"Payments are generally made towards the perpetual-based licensing costs attached to the solution, but people can also opt for subscription-based licenses."
"The cost of Dell PowerEdge FX depends on the configuration we are using. We usually pay $5,000 to $10,000 based on the configuration, including RAM and storage."
"I rate the product price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."
"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge FX?
The cost of Dell PowerEdge FX depends on the configuration we are using. We usually pay $5,000 to $10,000 based on the configuration, including RAM and storage.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge FX?
The system is good, but compared to open-source and assembled servers, it is somewhat costly. If it were cheaper, it would be even better. I would prefer the next releases of Dell PowerEdge FX to b...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge FX?
We are providing the end-user experience by creating virtual machines on the server and assigning them to our clients. We set up multiple virtual machines on the Dell PowerEdge FX server and isolat...
What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
It is too early to say what improvements HPE Apollo Systems could implement because the report still needs to come out and the customer needs to properly evaluate the solution.
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
My main use case for HPE Apollo Systems is replacing many of the servers and storage boxes at one of the customer's sites to achieve workload optimization and optimized solutions. Additionally, whe...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
My advice for someone considering HPE Apollo Systems is that if they are looking for consolidation and their workload involves high availability requirements, or if they want to utilize GPUs, then ...
 

Also Known As

PowerEdge FX
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tracewell, Govers, AXA ASSISTANCE ITALIA
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Rack Servers. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.