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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Dell XR-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 4, 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
211
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (4th), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (4th)
Dell 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 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

"The solution is reliable."
"Customers share with us their experiences, highlighting reliability, ease of use, maintenance, and lifecycle management. They frequently mention that this equipment doesn't break, stating it works and functions reliably."
"It is pretty good at handling diverse applications. We have been using these servers for eight years. We have experienced good performance with them."
"The most valuable feature is reliability. We rarely have any issues and because of this, Dell is our go-to for servers."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped reduce our downtime by a lot."
"The ease of setting them up is valuable. It is easy to set them up."
"I like a feature they call iDRAC. It's a feature that allows you remotely power on and off the server."
"It works perfectly, especially in terms of availability and reliability, without any type of issue, which is why we are very happy with it."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
"The storage and the disc performance in terms of IOPS is great."
 

Cons

"The T150 is a little bit bulky for what it is. I think if they created a T150 version with small form-factor drives, that would be an ideal solution. Currently, it is a tower box and it has quite a big footprint..."
"We are leaning away from this particular product because Dell's VxRail solution makes us buy four nodes at a time which is not scalable. Other solutions such as Cisco offer more innovation on this front."
"The server itself is good, but sometimes, the salesperson forgets to sell us the right controller. It is related to sales. It is not related to the technical part."
"Being in Belgium, which is a small country, we might be considered too small for Dell since we only have 40 Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. This sometimes affects our ability to receive deployment support."
"Being in Belgium, which is a small country, we might be considered too small for Dell since we only have 40 Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. This sometimes affects our ability to receive deployment support."
"It is hard to make a comparison without any technical factsheets for the other servers to compare with but like everyone else, it is about the pricing."
"The only aspect that could be improved is the price. The product is extremely good, so it is always priced high."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could be improved in areas such as cooling. I've seen some demos of Dell working with Vertiv to manage things such as that, so a combination of air cool and liquid cool."
"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

"I am satisfied with the pricing of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and would rate the cost as seven out of ten, with ten being the best."
"The more complex the server requirements, the more expensive it gets."
"This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire."
"They seem to have become more expensive. I've not done a comparison with other vendors recently. If the price increases more, we would need to do a comparison next year just to make sure that we are benchmarking our server purchases correctly."
"This is an expensive solution."
"The price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions."
"It's a one-time licensing fee for the device and we pay a quota per year for the support."
"The pricing for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is on par with everything else at the moment."
"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%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
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 XR-Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
866,744 professionals have used our research since 2012.