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PowerEdge R740 Family of Servers
Tech Note by:
Tad Walsh
SUMMARY
The PowerEdge R740 rack
server family is comprised of
three members: R740, R740xd,
and R740xd2.
This tech note compares and
contrasts these three servers,
giving an overview of their
technical specifications and
capabilities, and calling out key
workloads for which they are
optimized.
Servers, optimized
Designing servers optimized for purpose and workload is part of the PowerEdge
design process. A highly-adaptable server like the PowerEdge R740 provides
extensive configuration flexibility, allowing it to be tailored to the specific
demands of a wide range of workloads. Yet even more differentiated designs in
the same 2-socket space are needed to meet the emerging demands of highly
data-intensive workloads. Thus we see additional servers (the PowerEdge
R740xd and R740xd2) in the same general space, in order to provide peak
capabilities for those data-abundant use cases.
PowerEdge R740
The PowerEdge R740 is a 2u rack server providing a balanced architectural
design for driving peak 2-socket performance and cost-efficient operation. It
supports up to two processors from the broad range of offerings in the Intel
Xeon Scalable Processor family; 24 DIMM slots for RDIMMs/LRDIMMs or
alternatively for up to 12 NVDIMMs; and up to eight PCIe Gen 3 I/O slots (one
of which will be taken by the PERC adapter). Large, front-accessible storage
capacity is provided by up to 16 x 2.5” SAS or SATA (HDD/SSD) drives, or up
to 8 x 3.5” SAS or SATA HDD. Furthermore, the innovative PowerEdge Boot
Optimized Storage Subsystem (BOSS) in the R740 offers up to two M.2 SSD’s
for the segregation of operating system from data.
The R740 offers broad configuration flexibility, allowing it to be tailored for the
requirements of a wide range of workloads and applications including OLTP,
Decision Support, XaaS, web tech, server virtualization, desktop virtualization
(VDI), and HPC. For users needing to drive application performance beyond
the 2-socket range, the R740 also supports numerous GPU and FPGA options,
enabling users to stay at the forefront of emerging application areas such as
ML/DL, AI, and business-oriented HPC.
In the realm of high availability features, the R740 offers multiple hot-plug power
supplies for full redundancy, and these power supplies can be chosen from a
range of wattages, allowing users to choose the appropriate type of power
supply based on the needs of their workloads and server configuration. Cooling
comes from up to six fully-redundant hot-plug fans.
Image 1: PowerEdge R740 (left) and PowerEdge R740xd (right). Yes, they look the same from
the outside.