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Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs Dell XR2 Rugged Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

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 Rack Servers
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
166
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (5th)
Dell XR2 Rugged Server
Ranking in Rack Servers
14th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 27.8%, up from 28.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XR2 Rugged Server is 0.7%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently
We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.
Jesse_B - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to scale, high availability, and top level service and support
Dell XR2 Rugged Server's technology is always on the competitive edge, with the most current technology. They have proven reliability. If you're looking for a mission-critical system and support is important to you, then this is something a solution you should consider. I rate Dell XR2 Rugged Server a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"What truly impresses me about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is their unwavering commitment to customer service, providing great assistance throughout the entire product lifecycle."
"This product has really saved us a lot of headaches when it comes to hardware replacements. It's something it seems that Dell has improved. You quickly log your support case and get support. The turnaround time is really fast."
"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped reduce our downtime by a lot."
"I find Dell PowerEdge Servers to handle diverse applications and evolving needs effectively, but we have to upgrade the hardware periodically."
"Using PowerEdge rack servers has allowed us to use less space. Previously, we used the regular servers, but PowerEdge rack servers take up less space and are easier to handle."
"The solutions accelerated GPUs helped to support demanding workloads and to reduce data processing time in our organization."
"PowerEdge Rack Servers are very good for handling the evolving needs of high-performance workloads."
"The server itself has the most stable updates. The patches and the updates will take you a long way before they release another one, so you aren't constantly doing more updates and upgrades."
"The storage and the disc performance in terms of IOPS is great."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
 

Cons

"The analytics reports could be more useful."
"Considering from a hardware perspective, some areas of concern were network cards on the models we had in our organization, which were fairly inaccessible, so we had to remove the whole motherboard and, basically, the whole system to get rid of or swap a network card."
"In terms of the iDRAC software, when selecting systems, especially multiple systems to upgrade, there's really no way to confirm that specific systems are selected."
"The cost can be improved. For other use cases, we use Hitachi servers, which are a little cheaper but have similar functionality."
"One of the things that I've noticed is that over time, the system degrades, meaning that little things don't work. For example, the hard drive would need to be replaced or iDRAC would not be functioning properly. We may have to flash the firmware. It is not like some other hardware where it just runs without issues for four or five years. With Dell, generally, there are little hiccups here and there."
"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."
"Their support can be better. The speed of their support is not always great because the access to the data centers is sometimes complicated, so there is back and forth."
"The solution should give us an option to add on the new hardware features."
"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server could improve if there was more customization allowed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I have no issues with the pricing and licensing costs. They are fine."
"The price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions."
"You can't have computed performance without using more power. That said, when I consider the power consumption and performance of the MX740c, depending on how much memory you install on each blade, you get the best bang for your buck."
"The licensing comes with a warranty."
"The solution’s pricing is competitive with other products."
"Dell's solution was cheaper than HP's solution."
"There is room for improvement in making it more cost-effective."
"The product is cheaper than HP servers, but the price could always be better."
"The price of one Dell XR2 Rugged Server is approximately $10,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
The solution can be improved in terms of firmware backward supportability. With the sixteenth generation servers I am using, slightly older kernels and drivers are not supported. I have to use the ...
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Also Known As

PowerEdge R
XR2 Rugged Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
DIGISTOR - Secure Data Storage
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs. Dell XR2 Rugged Server and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.