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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Dell PowerEdge XR-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2025

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 R-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (4th), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (4th)
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Rugged Servers (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 27.6%, down from 28.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is 0.5%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series27.6%
Dell XR2 Rugged Server0.5%
Other71.9%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently
We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.
Jesse_B - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to scale, high availability, and top level service and support
Dell XR2 Rugged Server's technology is always on the competitive edge, with the most current technology. They have proven reliability. If you're looking for a mission-critical system and support is important to you, then this is something a solution you should consider. I rate Dell XR2 Rugged Server a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers scale with customer needs effectively."
"The most valuable feature is reliability. We rarely have any issues and because of this, Dell is our go-to for servers."
"Our customers do not ask for any service for the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers because they are very durable."
"We could install all the other accessories and cards the customer asked us to implement on Dell servers and integrate cards from different companies. Each requires a different OS. Dell helped us integrate all the systems."
"It operates without any downtime. It runs 24 hours and 365 days. The downtime is there for an hour or two only when I do an upgrade, but it is within the SLA."
"They have superior customer support compared to Supermicro, which does not cater to enterprise-level needs."
"They are incredibly valuable because they are both user-friendly and powerful for managing hardware."
"Ease of use."
"The storage and the disc performance in terms of IOPS is great."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
 

Cons

"The scalability has room for improvement."
"They need improvement in spare part availability in Argentina, but the servers are very good from a hardware point of view."
"It is not good in terms of its energy consumption for a large-scale deployment. I probably would go for something more dense, like blades or any type of small scale hardware service solutions, to lower the heat and power consumption. However, for small environments, this solution is okay and easy to maintain."
"On the MX7000 platform, they should continue to release better and faster blades."
"The iDRAC Telemetry that monitors PowerEdge system data and provides analytics could be a little bit more in-depth. Someone wanted more information on the RAM and the hard drives and we couldn't retrieve this information."
"The price is the only thing that can be improved."
"I would improve Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers by making their firmware upgrades easier. They do have Dell OpenManage Enterprise, which is easy, but when I am at remote sites, I have to download it locally to apply updates."
"They can consider making them smaller in physical size but retain the same quality and the same security."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server could improve if there was more customization allowed."
"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good for the quality of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"If price isn't a concern, I would recommend it."
"The pricing is very competitive."
"The pricing is fair enough."
"The pricing is very good because there are a lot of types of PowerEdge Rack Servers. You have the R540, R640, and R740. The prices are very scalable through the specific server, e.g., small businesses can take the R640 while large businesses can take the R740 or R840. Thus, Dell technologies touch on every organization."
"We would prefer it if the pricing were for half the cost. We have been expanding our company, and my boss stated that we must save money."
"It has generally been very competitive. It is not the best, but it is very competitive."
"I have no issues with the pricing and licensing costs. They are fine."
"The price of one Dell XR2 Rugged Server is approximately $10,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise51
Large Enterprise85
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
I don't have any issues or complaints with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, but they could make the service tags larger as I get older. It's not that they aren't customizable; you can actually use ...
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Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
XR2 Rugged Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
DIGISTOR - Secure Data Storage
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XR-Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
866,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.