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Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

 

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 XR-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Rugged Servers (1st)
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is 2.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 5.4%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series2.6%
HPE Apollo Systems5.4%
Other92.0%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Sherpard  Muzuva - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Manager at SYSTEMS INTEGRATED LTD (SYMPHONY)
Reliable servers have supported critical banking workloads and reduced downtime and costs
For improvements on Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I suggest enhancements in the support features, such as implementing a feature where the system can call home to Dell support to open a call automatically. Ideally, as a customer, I would just receive a message stating that a call has been opened, and if it's a failed hard disk, it should already be ordered automatically without much intervention for the customer. Many customers rarely check their systems in the data center, so I would love to see major improvements in health monitoring features that allow the system to automatically send alerts to Dell, open calls, and send parts automatically or implement self-healing features whereby a system can detect certain errors and try to correct itself unless it involves something permanent that it cannot correct. These are the features I expect in the new versions of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series to make the management and support of the system easier.
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

"What I like the most about Dell PowerEdge R-Series is probably the Redfish manageability, which provides management, remote management, and remote configuration capabilities."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server's technology is always on the competitive edge, with the most current technology."
"The most positive aspect of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is the availability, which is very high, and the support and services are very good."
"I appreciate Dell PowerEdge XR-Series server because everything is integrated and the full solutions are integrated, including firmware and updating."
"I appreciate the management tool, iDRAC, in Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, as it is convenient for administrators to use when managing Dell PowerEdge XR-Series."
"The best features in Dell PowerEdge XR-Series are all-flash storage, which is easy to implement and install, and it was also easy to upgrade."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
"Using these servers has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime."
"We are running Apollo with SL-series servers and the best thing about them is the density of the storage area available."
"With HPE Apollo, we can propose configurations with many hard drives, making it suitable for large storage needs."
"Not having to manage traditional NAS has made a big difference."
"It's very hard for a professor to amass the supercomputing resources, so I've been very fortunate to have that level of supercomputing at our disposal and that has really enabled us to do the world's leading superhuman AI research."
"HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products."
"We're going to buy another Apollo 6500. We may configure it with half the number of GPUs because that may be all we need. In a sense, we can see the Apollo 6500 being so powerful that we only need half the GPU capability that we have now."
"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."
"HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"Certainly, the first negative aspect is the cost because the biggest challenge today is the way component costs are going higher."
"I think Dell PowerEdge R-Series can be improved in appearance. I would say that the improvement opportunity is probably on the monitoring side, the overall monitoring side."
"Service is a specific aspect that could be improved, but it is nothing bad."
"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
"Regarding the weakness of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I think the main drawback is that it is more expensive than other servers."
"Customization could be improved; more customization options are needed."
"This can be better and could be improved."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server could improve if there was more customization allowed."
"Connectivity to the outside of the server needs to be improved at the same time the network is improving."
"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."
"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."
"If the workload is not purely sequential, then performance in the IO is less than optimal because it's optimized for streaming processing."
"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."
"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 have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of one Dell XR2 Rugged Server is approximately $10,000."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"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."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"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."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
I find Dell PowerEdge's pricing reasonable. The price has been reasonable until now, and we cannot blame them because any other vendor is facing the same situation. Servers and hardware components ...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
For improvements on Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I suggest enhancements in the support features, such as implementing a feature where the system can call home to Dell support to open a call automatica...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
I still have experience with Dell products, particularly as I'm still working with Dell PowerEdge and others. I've been mostly dealing with Dell PowerEdge. We recently deployed Dell PowerEdge to ou...
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

XR2 Rugged Server
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

DIGISTOR - Secure Data Storage
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,196 professionals have used our research since 2012.