Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We primarily use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 3D rendering and 3D performance work. Our organization uses Dell servers to help with our rendering when they are not in use.

We have tested a few AI workloads on our PowerEdge servers, but we still need work to do in terms of installation, security, data privacy, and user agreements to deploy it in production. When you are in a big enterprise, you need at least two or three months to test something before launching it, or you may need to start over midway through. In some areas, we are at the forefront, but we are very far behind in other areas.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have allowed us to work with PC over IP, enabling coworkers to work from anywhere. The servers have contributed to the sustainability effort. Our newest purchases are leased, so Dell takes them back when we're done. Otherwise, we can send them to a sustainability company that works with them. We get some money back, and they take care of it and give it another life. We try to use them for at least four years, and they aren't dead. Another company can use them, but we want a warranty on all the stuff in our data centers.

PowerEdge servers have reduced unplanned production downtime. Before we used PowerEdge, we had a lot of workstations on the floor. We could experience anything from a power outage to someone tripping on a wire. That kind of outage is stressful for us because our workstations and servers help with our rendering when they aren't used.

The iDRAC helps us monitor and manage our systems.

PowerEdge could have more configuration options, such as the ability to combine different CPUs, memory volumes, data storage, and memory. The new Intel-based ones are a bit power-hungry. You want to fill the rack but can't because the estimated power consumption could be too high.

I have used Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for eight to ten years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack servers are highly stable. Over four years, we've had less than 1 percent downtime, and we've rarely had to contact support about instability.

We have effortlessly scaled from approximately 20 servers to many more, so scalability isn't an issue.

The extended warranty and next-day support are fantastic. Though we rarely need support, the overall reliability of the support service is highly satisfactory.

We have a central agreement with Dell, and Dell servers were preapproved and ready to be installed. Therefore, no evaluation of other server brands was conducted, and there has been no switch from other server brands.

Deploying PowerEdge support is effortless. Our first-line support handled and managed the deployment. They provided step-by-step guidelines for us to follow, and it worked well.

The return on investment with Dell PowerEdge servers is substantial due to the combination of pricing, extended warranty, and exceptional support.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers 10 out of 10. Nothing we have tested has been better.

On-premises

We started full-scale deployment in 2013 exclusively with Dell PowerEdge. We have the fourth generation of servers. We went from 720, 730, 740, and now 760. I have all the models.

We use PowerEdge to connect directly to electronics and readout systems so it is all deployed on-prem, on a private network with no connection to the outside.

I work in a research environment. We use these 400 huge clusters to connect to the electronics of readout detectors to read the data out of the homemade front-end electronics and then assemble the data files to be analyzed. It's moving data between electronics and the IT world of storage grid analysis, etcetera. I'm the service manager only for the readout part and that is already enough of a job.

Our servers are on the private network completely disconnected from the outside world. It's less of an issue than it would be for a front-end server to the Wild West. The whole firmware handling what Dell is doing through OAK Management Enterprise or other tools from the iDRAC is also important so that we get signed from the packages we can trust that were tested and don't render our server into a brick. When I get a maintenance window, it's once every four, or five months for four hours. I don't have time to do something, figure out if it doesn't work, and undo it. It has to work with the first job. Resilience in total globally is also important. I can install firmware and updates and have trust that it will work.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are good for power consumption compared to other brands. When we buy our Servers, we always take platinum, it's the best quality power supply. Maybe the others consume more power but I can certainly compare them to other platforms or vendors, and they are absolutely on the low side. Now with the 16th generation that came out, there's another huge step in the positive direction compared to the previous generations. In general, every time there's a new generation, I see that we get the same computing power for less electrical power. It moves in a good direction. We cut our energy consumption by half. This has saved us costs because we are running 300 days a year 24/7 on a full load. Thanks to PowerEdge we can lower our energy consumption lower than the competitors.

In our case, we figured out how much computing power we needed and bought more from the start. However, I'm spending my days buying memory and plugging additional memory. The change increases network bandwidth by changing onboarding functions. The memory capacity you can plug in is absolutely impressive for the bigger form factor. We can go through terabytes of memory without a problem. This is something impressive for me as we can open the chassis, and see how it's engineered inside so that we can easily access all the components, and change components without hours and hours of dismantling it. It is a bottom-up engineered product.

PowerEdge Rack Servers' impact on our sustainability goals is important but hidden. Based in Switzerland, we have to abide by the Swiss sustainability laws, which now forbid heat waste. If we build a data center now, we have to recuperate the heating and do something with it. We're no longer allowed to blow out the energy. 

For example, we are building new data centers now that are collecting it, and there's a residential area around it, and we heat the houses through hot water heating. We are legally obliged to do that. The times when we put a chiller outside and blow energy out are gone. That's the core context. If, when we started with the PowerEdge already at the time, we were 100 kilowatts for one room, we moved the junk out and put the first PowerEdge Servers in, and the power consumption went down to 80. So we recovered 20 percent for more computing. That was already more than ten years ago. by now, we have gone down to less than 50 with the latest generation of PowerEdge. So we are going down in power consumption while at the same time providing more computing power to the users. This is very important because the infrastructure to recuperate the heat costs money as well. The less I consume, the less I have to pay to recuperate it afterward.

There are two valuable features for me. Number one, we are always at the edge of technology, Dell is a great partner, so going to Austin to the HBC Lab, so we can test machines and platforms before they go commercial so we can adapt our developments because we plug homemade cards into the Servers. We have to make sure they're compatible. That's the development side. 

On the operations side, the value of service is always underestimated in terms of debugging, availability of spare parts, and the fact that they don't explode weekly. The quality of the products, the monitoring, the managed enterprise, pro support, TechDirect, self-dispatch of spare parts, etcetera, all of this allows us to run in the order of 500 servers if you take other clusters together. It is a tenth of a human host of a full-time equivalent. This means that if you would scale up linearly, one person could take care of 3000 Servers. That's quite impactful. Google published three people for 1000. We are doing one person for 3000. That allows us to free human resources for other tasks. The last time somebody had to go to the data center for support was five months ago. We could do many functions remotely, so there was no hardware fault. We could do daily maintenance remotely through iDRAC. Its remote management capabilities are one in a lifetime. I don't know any other platforms that offer the same level of manageability.

The world market for CPUs is excited. We have new ideas popping up left and right like new accelerator cards because there are GPUs. Dell is already working with Kalray, for example, that builds accelerator cards. There are new FPGA cards available on the market that are not in the portfolio. The last time I looked was when buying the new 760 Servers because it changes every couple of months, and not all Intel CPUs were certified. The adoption speed of new CPU and GPU technologies has room for improvement. 

However, I know coming from the technical side this is a lot of work, and it's difficult. I know they are working on it and it's not something you do in five minutes. We have to stay fair. It would be nice but I know that now Intel and AMD come up with new CPUs twice a year. In the past, there was a new CPU generation every two years and now it's every six months. So the developers of servers and all the devices and programs are running to keep up with the speed itself.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 11 years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are stable.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are scalable.

The support is efficient. We have access to the spare parts catalog, We can diagnose a file and send it to them, and within two hours we have somebody on the phone. They are reactive and the problems were solved in the first attempt. This allows us to pay a little bit more for the initial investment but over the lifetime of the equipment, we have zero manpower costs to keep them running. The total cost over the lifetime of the equipment, we are largely positive compared to other brands where we have to pay a team of ten people to manage the equipment.

During the deployment, the amount of rails turned out to be a disaster. We asked for two fewer rails and I had the whole team come over and install the rails for PowerEdge. I had a colleague, who did the Rack all by himself, he was so fascinated with it. From the mechanical aspect, it's extremely easy and solid. 

There is also the engineering of the chassis down to the rail and how to put it in was well thought out. It was not some rails that were purchased out of a catalog from Taiwan. 

I use OAK Management Enterprise to control the whole cluster. Once we plug in the cable, the service tag is realized, and the server is deployed by itself. From plugging in a new machine to installation ready if there are not too many firmware updates, it's ten minutes. It's easy, requires little manpower, and is fast. 

When we had to install five hundred servers in the rack, there was a discussion about whether we should call on the professional deployment services from Dell to do that, and then we decided not to. Because we are two people, we could install 25 servers in two hours. It was done in two weeks.

We do the implementation in-house.

We have the equipment itself, but Dell also provides the full software framework infrastructure around it. That is crucial in monitoring in terms of what's going on and also that one allows for example one person to have a view over thousands of machines. I have CloudIQ on my phone so I can see what my servers are doing. I can predict its failure so we can react before something explodes. We can react before things fail. That, of course, reduces downtime, and increases happiness, on the customer side. 

As scientists, we want as much data as possible. In the experiment equipment running, there are no official numbers, but we are in millions per hour. Therefore, half an hour of downtime is costly. Not everything will be down, but if the data is unusable because there's one piece missing, it's as if everything will be lost.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers ten out of ten. We never have problems and if there is an issue we get help, and the issue is resolved quickly. I never found myself sitting around, not knowing what to do or not getting help. With other full-brand vendors, I couldn't get a support person to look at an issue. These vendors always underestimated support and the follow-up with the customer afterward. In my experience, Dell is the best.

I also spend a lot of time on the advisory board for the Dell HPC Community. I spent time with the developers in most of the service. Ten years ago, the Servers had two power supplies and they were both on the same side. Now on the new ones, one of the power supplies has moved to the other side. That was something we injected seven years ago into the development process because it makes installations in the Rack much more efficient.

On-premises

We primarily use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for VMware and Hyper-V environments. We deploy them in financial and manufacturing industries, focusing more on small businesses. While most of our servers are diskless, we do employ disked options for small businesses, mainly in a tower configuration.

Cooling has decreased because we have fewer servers. Everything's been a plus. We don't have to attend to them as much. We have iDRAC Enterprise on them, so we can have quick access if needed.

The quality of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent; they never experience downtime. They are highly effective as VMware and Hyper-V servers. They have helped reduce unplanned production downtime considerably. There is a model for anything we need, and we have the flexibility to match servers to client needs, which can vary from diskless servers to setups involving disks. Another advantage is that they are not made in China, unlike some HP servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have pretty much progressed a lot if we look at what features are on them now. I don't know what more could be asked for, perhaps just faster performance. Every product release seems to be an improvement over the previous one, so it's hard to point out specific areas for improvement.

We have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for twenty years.

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very stable. They run like a truck, with hardly any issues.

Customer service and support are excellent. Although we are self-sufficient and rarely need assistance, when we do use Dell's support, they have never ignored an issue. They address problems promptly.

Positive

We previously used Lenovo servers and switched because Lenovo's support was inadequate. The Lenovo SANs were not as robust as Dell's offerings.

We are totally self-sufficient and generally don't need external implementation support.

We find the server pricing fair and reasonable.

Buy Dell. Dell is an American company, and their headquarters are here, which makes them a reliable choice over companies with products made in China. Tariffs on Chinese products could make Dell more advantageous. I would rate the overall solution a 9 out of 10.

As part of my role at BSG, I deploy or sell Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to customers who need anything from just a single server to hundreds of servers. Our customers run all kinds of workloads such as virtual SQL, AI, and more on these servers. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers support a wide range of solutions, helping to ensure flexibility to cater to various customer needs.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are valuable because many users utilize iDRAC for management, and appreciate the consistency offered by Dell's server line. They offer a variety of features such as the availability of AMD and Intel options, and Dell is starting to get into direct and indirect water-cooled servers for larger customers. This suits those who need specific power consumption capabilities for their GPUs, CPUs, and RAM. Dell servers are supported by many partners when it comes to different software packages and solutions like OpenShift. Additionally, they offer a range of models to fit different customer needs.

The price of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is competitive. There's always room for support improvements, and the AI features could continue to be enhanced as the relationship with Nvidia grows.

Most of the time, deploying Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is straightforward. It’s crucial to have everything organized upfront, such as defining workloads and management responsibilities. Once these aspects are clear, the solution can be priced and installed efficiently, sometimes with Dell or Connection handling the installation.

Customers looking for higher densities are starting to lean towards AMD to achieve more cores, higher density, lower wattage, and ultimately a smaller footprint with fewer servers. The flexibility provided by Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in terms of model variations supports scalability.

While I do not work directly with Dell for support, customer feedback suggests Dell’s technical support is rated between eight and nine. It is decent, though there is always room for improvement.

Positive

Clients may switch to Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for several reasons, such as better support, new IT leadership preferences, cost considerations, or successful engagement by sales and engineering teams.

The initial setup of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers requires having all the necessary information organized beforehand. Factors to consider include workload management, customer responsibilities, and pricing details. Smooth installation is achievable when these considerations are adequately addressed.

Deployment might require different resources depending on the solution. For example, VDI, virtualization, and SQL databases would need different expertise. Additionally, tasks such as rack and stack, power management, and water cooling could require specialized personnel, sometimes involving up to seven or eight people on deployment calls.

Customers are exploring models like Apex, similar to GreenLake, for consumption-based models that feel like cloud services but keep hardware on-premises, making them feel safer and potentially reducing costs. Some customers find familiarity with Dell servers aids in the process.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are often compared against other solutions like UCS, Lenovo, and Cisco. Customers may switch to Dell for its solid R&D, broad support, and solution flexibility though performance between similar CPUs across different brands tends to be consistent.

PowerEdge is a solid product, continuing to evolve with Intel and AMD changes and partnerships like Nvidia for AI. Overall, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine to ten as the product has maintained a strong reputation over time.

On-premises

We are using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Server for core banking applications. It is working fine and we are happy with it.

Dell PowerEdge Servers have had an impact on our organization’s sustainability goals. Their power consumption seems to be fine. We have not seen any issues.

We have not experienced any security incidents or vulnerabilities with our PowerEdge Servers.

We do not have much workload right now. We are happy with whatever we have tested.

Currently, we are facing issues with updates, particularly on the driver side. We did not receive proper communication about upcoming driver upgrades and other aspects. We are lagging in that area. We need to know about any upcoming updates so that we can plan accordingly. It could be that our emails are not registered properly.

It is a new company, and we started using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers only six months ago.

Until now, it has been working fine. It is stable.

Dell PowerEdge Servers have not helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We are a start-up company, so we do not have much downtime. We have a downtime of five minutes or ten minutes over here and there.

I have not had the need to scale yet. Currently, we have only 50 users. We are planning to grow next year and have about 25 more users.

When it comes to hardware replacement and other issues I faced previously, the response has been good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

Positive

I used HPE in my previous organization. We are an entity within a group, and we were asked to go for Dell servers.

All the backend work is supported by a company in India.

We started only six months ago, so I cannot measure the ROI.

We are a new company, and we are at the initial stage of our AI journey. We need proper engineers for our AI journey.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten. We do not have much load at the moment. We are at the beginning stage, but so far, we are happy with it.

I am an IT infrastructure guy, and I use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a variety of workloads, including data imported from machines, file shares, and many other applications.

Using Dell PowerEdge Servers has helped us reduce planned production downtime by approximately 15 percent. PowerEdge has improved the overall flexibility of our business operations. 

I'm still working on reducing power consumption. I'm working with one of Dell's partners to get some power consumption certificates. I need to submit some certificates of sustainability showing how we are working on that. I'm still working on it. That is something entirely new for me. I don't know how to drive that, but I'm getting help from the Dell coordinator on how to do that.

We have only begun our AI journey. We want to use AI to analyze our data, and we're also trying to coordinate. We don't have any AI workloads on our servers yet. We're only capturing data. Currently, our data is being washed, and our data scientists are enriching it to prepare it for the next level. After that, we'll bring AI in to build reports and things like that. It's a work in progress.

I find Dell PowerEdge Servers to handle diverse applications and evolving needs effectively, but we have to upgrade the hardware periodically. PowerEdge's cyber resilience architecture approach to security is good. I don't have any concerns on that part.

Dell has already started working with NPUs and AI, which is a good thing. Right now, data is everyone's primary concern. Every company wants to evaluate data to advance technology and improve its business. The server should work better on the data side. Data is a priority around the world. 

There are a lot of data platforms around, but it would be helpful if we could perform some basic data operations on the server so we don't need an extra vendor. Azure is their Microsoft Cloud solution, and they collaborate with data companies like Databricks. We are also on the cloud and work with Databricks, but they could add some basic features so an enterprise doesn't need to go for extra Databricks to do their data things. 

If data could be handled within the Dell server, we can achieve a milestone on all the low-level sites. Our company is global, with many sites in Sweden and small sites in other countries. We don't need a complete Databricks solution for them. We need Dell servers to handle basic data and talk to our application. We have to configure a bridge between Dell servers and use Databricks for analysis. We could save a lot of money if the fundamental data functions can be done within the server.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for five years.

The stability is excellent. Our only problems are software issues that our technical team can manage. 

I rate PowerEdge six out of 10 for scalability. As our needs have grown, we've faced some challenges. 

I rate Dell's support five out of 10. Sometimes, the technical skills are lacking. I'm not an expert, but I have worked with Dell solutions for 10 years.  Not everyone is an expert, so sometimes I have to help them with the troubleshooting part. Sometimes, someone is having a bad day, or you get the wrong person. 

They improved communications by adding a point person in Sweden. That person is more of a salesperson but has helped in many ways. That was missing for a long time, but they implemented it in the last few years.

They needed someone who could connect with the customer. Dell is a massive global company, but we are a big customer, and sometimes I feel they forget about us. They should treat every customer as if they're your biggest. Biggest. I felt a few times like we weren't prioritized.

Neutral

Dell has been our traditional server, and we have not evaluated other brands because we've worked with Dell for a long time. It's significantly better than other server brands on the market based on key metrics, so we haven't looked at other ones. 

The initial setup has always been smooth because we take our time and have never rushed the deployment.

We did the implementation in-house. We used autopilot integration, but nothing beyond that.

I rate PowerEdge Rack Servers eight out of 10.

On-premises

In my work environment, I deploy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for servers. We are currently running database and file sharing workloads on our Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The best features of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers include the fact that I haven't had any problems, and the Dell support at the ProSupport level is very good. The impact of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers on my organization has been positive, as I haven't had any outages. This is due to the equipment. Using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has helped us reduce unplanned production downtime. We've reduced unplanned production downtime significantly, as I haven't had any hardware failures. The flexibility of my operations has been positively affected by the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, as they're good for space savings.

I don't have any issues or complaints with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, but they could make the service tags larger as I get older. It's not that they aren't customizable; you can actually use your phone to scan the barcode, and everything's pretty good.

I have probably 15 years of experience with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The issue was with the hardware, not on my side or Dell's side.

I would rate Dell support for their rack servers as a 10.

I've been using Dell throughout my entire career, so I've not experienced other solutions that don't measure up to Dell.

We used Computacenter as our third party reseller. My experience with the third party we used was very good.

I haven't seen ROI in terms of operational impacts; the reliability of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is what stands out as the main thing.

I have only been using PowerEdge throughout my career without evaluating other options.

We recycle the devices as part of our sustainability efforts. We have not been using or running any AI workloads on the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. To someone considering running AI workloads on these servers but concerned about costs, that's a valid concern. We don't have a current need or workload for AI. It ensures we have the right technology, and what we're paying for that technology is good fair value. Our AI journey, while we're not using it right now, we probably plan to implement it within the next nine months.

Overall, I would rate the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a solid 10.

On-premises

We are an MSP and we use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our customers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers work with other products, such as different kinds of storage. We use the racks and the servers more in the server room, so we have to apply servers, other types of storage, and different types of firewalls, and it all works together smoothly.

It helps reduce our footprint by 20 to 30 percent.

Regarding reliability, we feel it's a one-time installation. We don't have problems operating it. If we have to shut down, we have to restart and it all goes right back. Our customers are satisfied with the system, so we don't hear any specific problems and it is quiet. That's the most important thing because if we're providing services to our clients, it's important for us that they work fluently and then the client doesn't complain. 

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers reduce downtime. They go right back up, reducing downtime by 20 to 30 percent compared to HP Servers.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers do a good job of reducing our energy consumption.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are good at handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads. They are comfortable to use and provide good results for our needs. I have not encountered any installation or maintenance issues.

The overall flexibility is good. As long as we plan and know what is needed, it is easy. There are a lot of specialists and Dell Professional Services that can help.

The most valuable features are resiliency, reliability, easy installation, maintenance, and compatibility with other systems or servers.

The price distance increases with the higher-end, more complex servers, and there is room for improvement.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for five years.

The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is good. They are able to meet all of our needs. We have not seen any limitations.

The deployment is straightforward.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers provide a return on investment through the time saved for our technicians during complex projects, installation, mounting, and onboarding.

The more complex the server requirements, the more expensive it gets.

We evaluated HP Servers but found them to have more downtime.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers eight out of ten. The price and response time from the test specialists keep it from being a ten out of ten.

We used Dell Professional Services to plan, implement, and adopt our solution a long time ago. The service was great. I would rate Dell Professional Services eight out of ten. If they responded quicker to our emails, they would be ten out of ten.