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Dell PowerEdge MX- Series vs HPE Synergy vs Supermicro SuperBlade comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Blade Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge MX- Series is 9.6%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Synergy is 9.7%, down from 21.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Supermicro SuperBlade is 7.8%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Blade Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge MX- Series9.6%
HPE Synergy9.7%
Supermicro SuperBlade7.8%
Other72.9%
Blade Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Md. Shohel Rawshan Sarker - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Blade platform has supported clustered production workloads and delivers strong performance
In the industry, there are currently blade solutions from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Cisco. Compared to those, all blade solutions are similar in design. In the chassis, there is a back panel where each blade has a card module that plugs into the blade chassis. The chassis contains a network switch as well as a SAN switch. The SAN switch and network switch combined to the blade module provide plug-and-play functionality. The throughput is also good. Dell PowerEdge MX- Series currently has two types of processors with speeds of 2.1 and 2.3 GHz, possibly 2.2 GHz as well. All applications in our environment run on these processors. However, I think the processor speed should be higher because the coming applications are all AI-based and require more powerful processing. As of now, there is no issue with the current processor clock speed for our running applications. They are all Gold processors. In our environment, we have designed a setup with Dell PowerEdge MX- Series chassis with two network switches in the back panel. The two network switches connect to the main upstream network switch with link aggregation protocol (LACP) bonding. Currently, 160 gig, 40, 40, 80, and 80 gig bandwidth is running. The throughput is 80 gig total. Each blade server has a 20 gig network connection and will get a maximum of 20 gig network bandwidth, while the total chassis will deliver a maximum of 80 gig bandwidth. However, it can go up to 160 gig because the upstream network switch supports QSFP+ modules that are 40 gig each, with two 40 gig connections totaling 80 gig. Dell PowerEdge MX- Series also includes a SAN switch. The SAN switch is in the back panel of the chassis and connects to our main central SAN switch, which is connected to central storage. It is easy to onboard our central storage to the blade server as required, and there is no issue with that. The benefits include the fact that Dell PowerEdge MX- Series blade servers have sixteen blade servers in a single chassis, which consumes minimal space in the rack and data center, as well as requiring minimal cabling. For cabling, there are only four network cables connected to the main upstream switch. When connected to the SAN switch, there are only four additional cables, totaling eight cables to the SAN switch. This results in no messy cables in the data center. Additionally, the performance is good enough based on our current applications running on the servers.
MR
Presales engineer and consultant at Hybrid Tech
Redundant components and single console management improve efficiency while high costs warrant attention
Regarding HPE Synergy, the most valuable feature is that the whole solution and the whole system operate in passive mode, and there are very few chances of downtime as all the components in HPE Synergy are redundant, including VC Flex modules and interconnect modules, as well as power supply and fan modules. Other networking and storage connectivity modules are also redundant, and we can mount the entire Synergy frame in a single rack. If we fully populate a Synergy frame with 12 servers, 12 physical machines could be mounted in one Synergy frame, mostly with redundant power supplies and networking ports along with SAN connectivity on a single console.
Gergely Lakos - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
With many servers in one, these blade servers are easier to manage
The service could be improved by faster servers, more widely available VMs, and more storage in one place. Then, in the event of a blade failure, we could start our VMs on another blade in a couple of minutes. This is why we wanted to buy storage. But now, we want to buy a twin server with 24 VMware discs to create test storage. The next product release should allow more servers to be controlled simultaneously.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Regarding technical support from Dell, I find them to be one of the best support providers in the industry right now."
"The low cost and high density of the solution has allowed us to place more compute assets per data center rack and increase our virtual machine count."
"The initial setup of Dell PowerEdge M is straightforward, and its ease of installation is a highlight."
"The tool's most valuable features are high availability and scalability. Its integration is easy."
"Dell PowerEdge MX- Series enhances my IT department's operational efficiency through several valuable features, including modularity that allows for easy scaling and good planning, and advanced networking capabilities with SmartFabric that make upgrades plug and play while it takes care of everything."
"Dell PowerEdge MX- Series has positively impacted my organization by being the backbone, and I am the gatekeeper for monitoring and troubleshooting, and this product makes my life easy by not giving me any downtime and working up to the mark."
"The biggest advantage of PowerEdge is that it is cost-effective, and its performance and infrastructure are much better than other competitors like Lenovo and HP."
"The solution offers remarkable flexibility, reliability, and extensive software support."
"The solution is pretty good and very stable."
"Changing the form factor in Synergy allows us to have more RAM, which is significantly helpful for us."
"Everybody noticed very large improvement in data processing, as a lot of activity which took hours now takes, let's say, tens of minutes."
"It has improved our procurement and day zero provisioning. We are bringing in racks of Synergy which are not populated with the blades, then we are buying the blades and populating them, as our business needs. This has been pretty helpful to be able to sort of pre-package the data center with the Synergy platform, then deploy servers into it as we grow."
"Its versatility, performance, and size are most valuable. It is very decent for its size. It has very good performance and very good specifications."
"They are responsive, and we don't have any problem at all when talking with them."
"The processing time has been about 50 times faster and allows us to do AI models."
"We bought it with the intent to replace the c7000 workstation blades. It is bigger than the workstation blades in core count, memory, and graphical capabilities. So, it has broadened us in that regard, and we have more capabilities."
"The ability to save resource is a key feature."
"So far, the solution seems to be very stable."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"This solution can be used for various applications, high-performance computing, software as a service, cloud service, and data centers."
"I think the IPMI is a really good feature."
"We use Supermicro Superblade servers because we are a software engineering company and these competitively priced blade servers with many servers in one are easier to manage."
"It's an affordable and scalable device that fits requirements for a SMB with a tight server budget."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement is the connectivity, specifically the backplate and switch connections."
"More interconnections with third party equipment and limited I/O selection."
"More interconnections with third party equipment and limited I/O selection."
"Compared to other solutions, this blade server requires more stability."
"In terms of improvement, it should also offer a hyper-converged option."
"Technical support is not good."
"We have had some issues with the vendor's support that we have received. When you open up a support case with Dell they send a partner to assist you and in our experience, they are lacking knowledge about the solution. There are times when you need professional support from the vendor that knows the solution well."
"Technical support from Dell is not good. I rate it a zero out of five."
"There is room for improvement in the efficiency part. The power consumption is very high, and there should be a more efficient way of reducing the power requirements while maintaining high performance."
"I would like the ability to take the storage tray that is in a chassis and share it out to multiple chassis, not just the servers within the same chassis."
"I would like it to connect to the HPE Cloud Connect compute platform for simplicity of our infrastructure."
"The initial setup was complex. We had a couple of bright engineers working on it, and they figured out a lot of things that they don't know... The problem was that they couldn't find documentation easily, to walk them through setup when they just didn't know the platform."
"I would like more storage with this solution, because we still need 3PAR or other storage outside the box for the amount of data that we have."
"I would be more comfortable if Ansible actually rolled back the data used for automating platforms."
"I've found the user experience to not be that great."
"In the past, I have had issues with configurations."
"They need to improve their delivery time. It takes too long right now."
"The solution does not scale well."
"There is a lack of support for fiber channels currently that needs to be added."
"I think the Supermicro blade servers are not the best. They could improve in scalability but are not really scalable right now."
"There is a lack of support for fiber channels currently that needs to be added."
"Supermicro blade servers are not the best. They could improve in scalability but are not really scalable right now."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I know we get three years basic, and the on-site licensing model for business seems fine. I wouldn't pay for a support plus or anything."
"The product is neither expensive nor cheap. It is manageable for medium enterprises as well."
"Dell PowerEdge M price is comparable to other solutions but cheaper than IBM. However, the IBM solution is a higher grade solution whereas Dell PowerEdge M is a medium-level solution."
"The solution's pricing is slightly higher."
"The product is budget-friendly. The initial cost for each server was around 10,000 euros. It's a standard price, not too high or too low."
"The cost varies significantly depending on the server's configuration and can range from $10,000 to $60,000 for the same server line family."
"It was budget friendly."
"The pricing of PowerEdge Next is higher than it was before."
"It costs us around $60,000 a year."
"For me, the scalability is how much money that I need to spend on switches for how many frames, which ultimately means servers. To get the best bandwidth before the most recent product announcement, I have buy new switches every three frames. The competition is shipping a product right now where I only need switches every ten frames."
"The price point is a little high. We were able to get a good deal on a promotion, to go with it. It would be nice to see the prices come down a little bit."
"The Nutanix platform came in a little more expensive than the Synergy."
"We don't have to pay for Synergy because it's part of our plan."
"The solution has reduced our IT infrastructure costs because we have had to buy less services than we used to."
"The cost is high and that is a drawback for some customers."
"We do a biannual renewal. I know how much that renewal is, but I don't know how much it breaks down to be just Synergy, since we have our VMware, all of our physical equipment, etc. all rolled up into one renewal, which is a little over $300,000 every two years. However, only a subset of that is the Synergy product."
"The product is not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise56
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerEdge M?
The best feature is the idrac tools, which allows me to manage/config the platform from the Linux level.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge M?
It is difficult to determine the pricing because I do not manage the pricing information. The price may be getting hi...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge M?
Firmware upgrades are acceptable, but Dell PowerEdge MX- Series needs to be more stable than other solutions.
How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?
For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and s...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?
As far as the prices are concerned, rack mount solutions are less expensive than HPE Synergy prices; however, HPE Syn...
What needs improvement with HPE Synergy?
In my opinion, for future improvements in HPE Synergy, there should be better management of power consumption complex...
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Also Known As

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SuperBlade
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Newport City Homes, Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC), Georgian College, AgreeYa Solutions, IIHT Cloud Solutions, Arizona State University, AudienceScience, University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Holy Cross School
HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United
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Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco and others in Blade Servers. Updated: May 2026.
894,668 professionals have used our research since 2012.