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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
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
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 August 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is 2.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 5.6%, 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 XR-Series2.8%
HPE Apollo Systems5.6%
Other91.6%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Ajit Pratap Kundan - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Solution Consulting at Accops Systems Pvt Ltd
Rugged servers have delivered reliable high-performance analytics and reduced downtime
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series servers include rugged devices that are very tough, and we are using these servers in very sensitive areas. Their tolerance is good; they are resistant to dust and other elements. They feature redundant power, and they have a TPM 2.0, which is very important from a security perspective. This also has a Silicon Root of Trust. iDRAC, which is part of all Dell servers, is also included here. These are the important aspects from the servers' point of view. In terms of capabilities, Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is high performance and capable of addressing high performance workloads. They have front access networking, which makes it easy to work with. We also get all the GPU ready workload configuration required from the workload perspective, resulting in very low latency. Even users accessing from remote locations are able to achieve optimum performance. Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has flexibility; it is very flexible and can handle all kinds of workloads. We are running a variety of applications on this system. It is also easy to scale up and down on demand, which is the best part. Additionally, it has good rack compatibility, as most places do not have optimal power or space, and these servers address that concern.
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

"Using these servers has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime."
"Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is very popular and we are selling this as a standard."
"Stability, good performance, and good tools to manage the system are the best features for me."
"The performance of the product in extreme conditions is good; it can run in critical workloads with not much hardware issue."
"Using Dell PowerEdge servers has indeed affected the overall flexibility of my customer's operations and businesses."
"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."
"Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is better compared to other servers and runs more efficiently, with stability and reliability that have been good so far."
"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 cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system."
"For us, the most valuable features are the price and density."
"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."
"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."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance on that."
"It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage."
"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."
"It is a stable product; very reliable."
 

Cons

"I see areas for improvement in Dell PowerEdge XR-Series as sometimes there is some delay during the boot time; we occasionally need to disable some ROM options to prevent a boot delay or a network boot loop."
"The support could work faster, but that is the only small thing that could be better."
"My assessment of the new Dell PowerEdge servers for energy consumption is that energy consumption is on par with what I've used in the past. I can't say it's been any better or any worse."
"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."
"I do not think there has been any reduction in total cost of ownership."
"Customization could be improved; more customization options are needed."
"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."
"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."
"The solution's deployment, security, and scalability need improvement."
"I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second - that would be outstanding."
"HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved."
"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."
"If there's anything that hasn't been that stable, then it is the Lustre file system."
"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."
"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."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
26%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
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?
Using Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has helped reduce my total cost of ownership compared to other solutions such as HP or Lenovo, which are servers I have used. Dell is less expensive compared to Lenov...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
There are many areas to improve in Dell PowerEdge XR-Series. Eliminating the single point of failure on the network, such as a traditional setup with cloud or central data center outages that impac...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
I am a reseller for Dell PowerEdge XR-Series. As a partner, I have to provide the users and services for Dell PowerEdge XR-Series deployments or any kind of virtualization purpose.
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: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.