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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs IBM Power Systems vs Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers 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 April 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 25.4%, down from 27.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 7.0%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers is 12.2%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series25.4%
IBM Power Systems7.0%
Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers12.2%
Other55.400000000000006%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Tom van Mil - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator at Lico Innovations B.v.
Supports flexible hosting needs through seamless upgradability and strong monitoring capabilities
The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me are the feature richness and the upgradability. I really love the way that it is so dynamically applicable for every situation, and they manage to have an all-in-one solution for every single situation. Dell PowerEdge has supported the growth and operational success of my company through its great compute power and price-to-performance ratio. Every time Dell is at the top of its game for us, and there is just no other brand for us that is able to reach that kind of price-to-performance ratio. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of my small company, such as iDRAC. The iDRAC system is a complete feature set for managing servers and hardware technically and monitoring-wise. It really fits in our system and our ecosystem, and monitoring-wise, it is excellent. They have all these sensors available via different protocols and end points, which I love, and the ability to manage and control everything via the iDRAC interface is just a welcome bonus. In our use case, Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very flexible. It is another computer which helps a lot because of the durability over time. They keep running, making scalability for getting more of those resources in our environment so easy.
Foluso  Jibowo - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at Hiperdist Ltd
Has empowered enterprises with secure and cost-effective solutions
When discussing disadvantages, I do not see many areas for improvement because we have received good testimonies from every client. IBM gives customers peace of mind. One challenge, which I would not really call a challenge, is that initially people have the notion that IBM Power Systems is quite expensive. However, IBM does not lose deals based on price. This is a message we need to keep communicating to people who feel that IBM is on the high side in terms of cost. We encourage them to have a discussion with us about their total cost of ownership over three or five years. There is a notion in the market that IBM is expensive, which is false. However, once we engage and show them their return on investments and their total cost of ownership savings, they tend to embrace IBM.
Adalberto Giaretta - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology director at Infodive Representações e Serviços ltda
Reliable with an easy setup and good support
These are rack servers. We use them for applications. It stores everything including VM servers, application servers, Windows, et cetera The reliability is great. The solution is like any other commodity like Dell or HPE. These are all very similar.  Setting up the solution is easy. It is stable.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Dell platform works very well, we are very happy with it, and if price isn't a concern, I would recommend Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has given us a stable platform to build on, which is significant for us because we do high-frequency trading, so stability and performance are crucial."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series is more than capable of supporting those systems, and that has been really important."
"I would evaluate the support from Dell as exceptional."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has positively impacted my organization by making simulations easier and faster, reducing the solution solving time and the project delivery time, as well as the cycle time."
"The initial setup is very good, not complex at all."
"The feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers that I value the best is the iDRAC, as it is extremely good and simplifies tasks."
"The server itself has the most stable updates. The patches and the updates will take you a long way before they release another one, so you aren't constantly doing more updates and upgrades."
"What our customers appreciate most is that they can save space, since Power is high performance, you can have fewer machines, fewer servers, and good performance in your environment."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Power Systems is its performance."
"The virtualization and the quality you get from it is one reason we like the solution."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Power VM gives us the flexibility to increase or decrease machine resources when required."
"We have done testing with Intel, we have done testing with POWER, and the performance we were getting with POWER is actually very good compared to what we were getting on the other systems."
"We go with Power Systems because the reliability and the availability of the systems are key."
"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."
"It is a very good product, it is very easy to implement, and you can scale it easily."
"The product is very user-friendly."
"We have not experienced any issues with the Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers' performance, as it is stable."
"It's very easy to set up and energy-efficient; it's very compact and has enough connections on the front and back of the rack."
"The solution is very simple to install."
"It performs really well, and the price is cheaper than other solutions."
"The hardware performance is very valuable."
"Its performance and the local support of Lenovo in my city are the most valuable features."
 

Cons

"I do not any have input as such, but there can be some AI capabilities."
"The shipment times could be improved. Sometimes we have to wait four or five days before we get the actual servers. It could even be longer. Sometimes it is many days."
"I've had some trouble where the customers are not happy with the Toshiba drives, and it's a challenge when it comes to specific requests for Dell to a non-deviate, and only use Seagate drives."
"We are working with national markets, and HP Enterprise is cheaper. Dell could have made an effort there."
"We have storage and would like to manage more backups without adding extra storage devices. Maybe it's already there. I need to look at it more."
"To improve Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I would like to see the return of the dedicated Hyper-V cluster storage product line that was discontinued, which I found to be a really nice product."
"I'd appreciate seeing more options in terms of expandability for certain Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers models."
"Power consumption is probably on everyone's top of mind regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; they use a lot of power and create a lot of heat. Also, the noise levels are pretty high, though I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about it."
"Support is good. I think it used to be much better."
"Sometimes, the availability of additional services can be a challenge. Certain IBM software takes time to deliver to the client. It can be slow."
"If you asked me what I'd like added, I'd say that it'd be nice if they ran GPUs, however, I know that's not the direction they're going. That said, I would appreciate it if they offered GPU support."
"In my country, there are power supply interruptions. IBM could find ways to make the product stable through these interruptions."
"It does not offer the ability to run any X86 or X64 Intel architecture-based application on Power Systems."
"I would like to see firmware available to all of the systems."
"Better manage heterogeneous footprints of all the different operating systems that are out there across one common interface."
"I would like to see IBM Power Systems integrate with all cloud types."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers availability could improve. We have been waiting two months for one server."
"It should have tools for integration with the cloud. We should be able to transmit data from our on-premises server to the servers in the cloud."
"Throughout the use of the product, special needs will arise which may require a global need."
"I have a few notification alerts about PCI cards but it's rare."
"It is too expensive. Because we are a university and we have to look for our money, many times we buy some refurbished machines or equipment at reasonable prices from IBM or Lenovo."
"The GUI of the system is really bad. HP has a very good UI for smart memories and everything inside, but in Lenovo, we have a black-and-white UI."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers does a very good job. However, what could be improved can be their Configurator because it's very bulky and it sometimes gives logical errors."
"Its price could be better. Its price is sometimes an issue for our clients."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's pretty much on par."
"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."
"There is room for improvement in making it more cost-effective."
"The main reason I choose Dell there is cost. Dell is cheaper than HPE. Why would I want to pay a premium for an HPE product when I'm getting the same amount of support, the same amount of data protection, and the same amount of performance from Dell?"
"The price is good for the quality of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"This solution is reasonably priced and licenses are easy to acquire."
"The pricing of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has been a little problematic. It was sticker shock with our most recent purchase compared to the previous one, and there's a gap in pricing at our current level because what we do isn't very compute-intensive, resulting in a mismatch where we fit into an in-between category without an exact solution available."
"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."
"The pricing of the solution is very good because we can beat any other competitor with the pricing. Lately, they have offered good pricing for their customer."
"Its price depends on the sizing."
"IBM Power Systems is a really expensive product."
"The additional software costs are high."
"IBM Power Systems is very expensive."
"The machine is good and has a comparatively good price."
"There is a yearly licensing cost, and it's an expensive solution."
"The solution's pricing is very, very high compared to other platforms."
"Other than the standard licensing fees there are no other additional costs. The price of Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers could be better, and the availability of the solution could improve. We have been waiting two months for one server."
"It is the cheapest solution we have seen on the market."
"It costs around $8,000. There is an additional cost for the support for a year."
"The cost of the solution depends entirely on the client. There are not any additional costs other than the standard licensing fee."
"I don't know the exact amount of money, but when I compared it to Dell or HPE, Lenovo was the best when it comes to price and equipment."
"In India, the solution is cheap compared to its competitors."
"The price of the solution is very expensive when compared to other solution like HP or Dell."
"The price of Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business98
Midsize Enterprise59
Large Enterprise113
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
 

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 ...
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 do not see any area for improvement in Dell PowerEdge R-Series, particularly nothing very significant. I do not kno...
What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?
In my opinion, the product can be improved by maintaining it and not sunsetting it; that would be my recommendation f...
What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?
I am an architect and system administrator, and I'm responsible for anything related to IBM Power Systems. In IBM Pow...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Power Systems?
I would recommend IBM Power Systems to others. I have given this review a rating of ten out of ten.
How do Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers compare with HPE ProLiant DL servers?
Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers offer flexibility and efficiency in order to meet mission-critical demands. I like th...
 

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
IBM OpenPOWER LC
SR Series, Lenovo SR Series, ThinkSystem Rack Servers, IBM Rack Servers, ThinkSystem SR Series, Lenovo Rack Servers,
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Cipher
immixGroup, Komsomolskaya Pravda, SRG Global, Seekr, Infiniti Red Bull Racing, jKool, Tennis Australia, VEKA, Netpoints, Gamma Powersports
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Rack Servers. Updated: March 2026.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.