No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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 XE-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is 3.4%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 6.0%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series3.4%
HPE Apollo Systems6.0%
Other90.6%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer991842 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Director, Information Technology at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Reliable data platform has supported continuous R&D and 24/7 manufacturing operations
The after-sales support is one factor for improvement, and the cost to extend the support and warranty of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is the main factor in whether we want to continue using the product or transition to another solution in the future. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series consumes a lot of power, so we have to really plan before deploying more Dell PowerEdge XE-Series in our environment; that is something we have to consider. Based on my experience so far, I am quite satisfied and do not see any other improvements needed for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series. My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is that they are a bit costly. If Dell can work on the pricing, that would be good, making Dell more competitive over other products.
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 resource management features are valuable."
"The features of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series that I like the most are the performance and the GPU, and the benefits I have seen from running AI workloads on PowerEdge servers include high performance."
"Technical support from Dell is the best when compared to other vendors."
"The compatibility and ease of migration with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series have allowed for smooth migrations without abrupt changes, supporting continuous evolution rather than fast evolution that carries more risk."
"The solution has almost everything."
"The most valuable feature of these servers is the ability to store a lot—the capacity and the number of hard disk drives."
"The strong point of this solution is its compatibility with VMware and its resilience."
"This is a very stable product; we have implemented more than 60 servers over the past three years and we have not come across any issues with stability, making it a very reliable server."
"The most valuable feature is the amount of programming storage available."
"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."
"We had a PoC, as I said, and we were happy with it and decided to implement it, as it satisfies all our needs and is the perfect solution."
"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."
"Apollo Systems provide stuff that standard services do not. More HTDs, more compute power, at very reasonable pricing."
"For us, the most valuable features are the price and density."
"It's allowed us to compete with cloud storage providers like AWS to put together a scalable on-premises solution of more than 20PB at a similar pricepoint."
"It's going to meet our needs moving forward, it is scalable."
 

Cons

"It is mostly stable, but the usual problem would be, for example, upgrading to a newer version of VMware or dealing with compatibility issues during the process."
"There are some areas for improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series; it's more of a Dell issue."
"Overall, Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has worked well, but I just do not know exactly how to measure it, although I have the impression that other servers on the network respond somewhat faster and have slightly better performance."
"The support team must improve the speed of response."
"A negative is the compatibility issues with newer models."
"I would like to have support for performing a detailed analysis of the server from a mobile device."
"Today, my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is difficult, but since one to two years ago, it has been very simple with Dell."
"Dell PowerEdge XE Servers can improve by adapting HCI technology."
"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."
"The licensing could be greatly improved, I think."
"If the workload is not purely sequential, then performance in the IO is less than optimal because it's optimized for streaming processing."
"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."
"We are struggling a little bit with some of the configuration we need to do, particularly with write capability to drives."
"The technical support for HPE Apollo Systems could be improved."
"One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker."
"The solution could improve the hardware, such as the motherboard or servers. We have had hardware faults in the past."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing model is quite competitive."
"There are different types of licensing available, that works well for customers. The product is not very much to purchase."
"This solution is priced very reasonably."
"Dell has competitive pricing."
"If you want an SLA for parts and equipment then you need to purchase a support agreement."
"You always want slightly cheaper, but overall, they are quite comparable and quite neutral."
"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."
"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."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Rack Servers solutions are best for your needs.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise8
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 XE Servers?
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series was very good. We see that most of our customers tend to not buy the AI Enterprise license from NVIDIA, mainly ...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series can be improved by having more documentation about known errors. I rate it an eight because if it had better documentation, I could consider it a ten.
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
My main use case for Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is GPU training and AI training, specifically running workload AI models. For example, we ran an open source AI model using Dell PowerEdge XE-Series. W...
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 XE Servers
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Epsilon, ROZETTA CORP, JIGUANG, RACKSPACE, NEW BELGIUM BREWING
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.