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Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

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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
22
Ranking in other categories
Rugged Servers (1st)
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 XR-Series is 3.2%, up from 0.7% 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 XR-Series3.2%
HPE Apollo Systems6.0%
Other90.8%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Md Rafique - PeerSpot reviewer
Desktop support Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Edge workloads have run reliably with rugged performance and secure remote management
While Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has met our expectations overall, there are a few areas that could be improved. The initial setup and configuration process could be more streamlined, especially for first-time deployments. Firmware and driver updates could be simplified further to reduce maintenance efforts, and more detailed documentation for edge-specific deployment scenarios would be helpful. We would also like to see enhanced monitoring and analytical capabilities within the management tools, providing deeper insights into system health and performance without relying on additional software. Additional areas for improvement include more intuitive management dashboards, faster firmware validations and data processes, and broader compatibility guidance for machine deployments with third-party hardware and firmware. More built-in automation for routine maintenance and proactive issue detection would also help reduce administrative overhead. These are enhancements rather than major shortcomings, as the platform is already stable, reliable, and well-suited for edge computing.
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

"There are two main advantages as a customer: performance, which is stable, and the support, which is quite good."
"Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has had a positive impact on my organization by improving the reliability and performance of my infrastructure."
"The most positive aspect of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is the availability, which is very high, and the support and services are very good."
"After moving more workloads onto the server along with network bandwidth, the server capability and application performance improved significantly."
"The performance of the product in extreme conditions is good; it can run in critical workloads with not much hardware issue."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Tech support has been outstanding."
"HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity."
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance on that."
"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."
"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 usually use three blades for two-rack units, and with enough storage, it's really a small system with a powerful CPU, powerful hard drives, powerful disks."
 

Cons

"I suggest virtualizing the CPU between multiple operating systems on the same server."
"The initial setup and configuration can be somewhat complex for new administrators."
"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."
"While Dell PowerEdge XR-Series has met our expectations overall, there are a few areas that could be improved."
"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
"I am not sure about return on investment with Dell PowerEdge XR-Series."
"Regarding the weakness of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I think the main drawback is that it is more expensive than other servers."
"We are struggling a little bit with some of the configuration we need to do, particularly with write capability to drives."
"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."
"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."
"If the workload is not purely sequential, then performance in the IO is less than optimal because it's optimized for streaming processing."
"The technical support for HPE Apollo Systems could be improved."
"If there's anything that hasn't been that stable, then it is the Lustre file system."
"Big stability issues with the CPU on the first generation which made them virtually unusable."
"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
27%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
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 Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
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 found the pricing of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series to be competitive for an enterprise-grade server. The initial hardware investment is significant, but it is justified by the performance and long-ter...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
Regarding improvements for Dell PowerEdge XR-Series, I need to add more CPUs and memory and easily convert to the cloud environment since I have many Azure cloud environments locally. In terms of n...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC XR2 Rugged Server?
My main use case for Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is that it is integrated with all the databases and backup along with the storage infrastructure and application infrastructure. I am supporting all th...
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: September 2026.
919,919 professionals have used our research since 2012.