Dell Rack Servers

[Tubby_The_Tuba]

Hi

 

I am currently looking to replace my file servers with rack servers. It's all we can afford :(. Dell are coming in cheaper than HP or Lenovo but I've never used Dell servers so I don't know how good they are.

 

Any opinions gratfully recived :).

Edited March 24, 2025 by Tubby_The_Tuba

[FN-GM]

We recently ran all 3 in service. We have replaced everything with Dell. Personally I would pay more for Dell. Their service has been good and also the most reliable! I think we are have around 34 physical Dell servers (not education).

Edited March 24, 2025 by FN-GM

[PotNoodleTech]

In my opinion Dell Poweredge are the best overall.

 

It's an opinion and we all have them. But based on 25 years experience.   

 

(When I picked up the last set of HP servers I thought they were gonna fold in half they were so light/thin.)

 

And as a brucie bonus they are readily available on the refurbished market so save yourself 60% get them for peanuts and take advantage of a fortune 500 companies stupidity.

[Chris_Cook]

I also like Dell servers - you don't have to pay for software updates, and they don't spend 30mins going through all the bios checks. I would choose them over HP.

[localzuk]

I've run Fujitsu, HPE and Dell. Of the 3? Dell is my choice because of boot times alone. Our HPE units took *forever* to boot. The Dell's took a third of the time.

[FN-GM]

1 minute ago, localzuk said:

Our HPE units took *forever* to boot. The Dell's took a third of the time.

 

I forgot about this. First time patching ESXI on HP made me a bit nervous!

[Olliedawg]

Dell everytime, always my first choice. Cant go wrong with a Poweredge

[dhicks]

45 minutes ago, Tubby_The_Tuba said:

Dell are coming in cheaper than HP or Lenovo

If you haven't tried them already, ICT Direct @ICTDirect_Dave (one of the forum sponsors) do good prices on nearly-new servers, Dell included, complete with proper warrenties.

[Norphy]

Going to echo this. Dell PowerEdge every time. Nicer to work on in terms of repairing/upgrading than HPs, and as already mentioned a lot quicker to boot and better support. 

[Dos_Box]

Another vote for Dell here. I used to buy PowerEdge servers when I was at the coalface, and never once had an issue in the many years I ran them.

[Tech13]

Jumping on this thread ... would everyone also recommend PowerEdge for virtual hosts? 

[lparry]

We run Dell PowerEdges here - no issues at all apart from 1 fan failure (general wear and tear 👍)

[Tech13]

2 minutes ago, lparry said:

We run Dell PowerEdges here - no issues at all apart from 1 fan failure (general wear and tear 👍)

Thanks! Do you also run Dell SAN?

[lparry]

2 minutes ago, Tech13 said:

Thanks! Do you also run Dell SAN?

We don't so sadly not much help there I'm afraid! - We just currently run VMWare but going to look at this during this summer holidays I think

[Tech13]

No worries at all - just interested in what people are using these days i.e. SAN/HOST / Hyper Converged etc.

[localzuk]

10 minutes ago, Tech13 said:

Thanks! Do you also run Dell SAN?

We have a Dell SAN, but I would advise to go a different route (I didn't buy it).

 

The better route for schools these days is to spec out a system with HCI instead. At my last place, I bought 3 Dell servers from @ICTDirect_Dave, plus a bunch of brand new 4TB enterprise SSDs, and some HBA storage adapters (so not RAID), and then set up Windows HCI, using Storage Spaces Direct. It means you don't have to have an expensive SAN as all the data runs between the servers instead. You just need 10GbE or better for the networking side.

[Norphy]

57 minutes ago, Tech13 said:

Thanks! Do you also run Dell SAN?

I've run Dell SANs (Equalogic and Compellent) but as I understand it Dell have discontinued both lines. For what it's worth, both were excellent products; in my last place I bought four Compellent SANs before Dell killed the line. I don't know what the current lineup is though.

[Davit2005]

Another vote for Dell. The driver download site for HP is painful.

[Aprice]

I’ve been pretty happy with Dell servers, as others have said the driver side of Dell is much better than HP, who seem to have made it as unintuitive as possible to get up to date.

 

On the whole though both are decent brands and I’d have no concerns with either.

 

All the secondaries we did in the last few years were Hyper-V S2D clusters, which were pretty solid. Provided they’re setup correctly. 

[DrCheese]

Dell all the way. As others have said above, the Dell driver site is so simple to use. Dump in the service tag and away you go.

You can create update ISO's that will update all firmware as well.

 

Unlike HP, they don't gate it behind a support agreement or make you login either.

 

Dell SAN - We have an ME40 series from them & it's been fine.

That said, we bought it when we had loads of data onsite & now we don't (Due to Cloud) so we would look at other options going forward before buying another one.

 

If you buy HCI, just be aware that MS doesn't offically support anything that isn't bought from a vendor so I would be wary about rolling your own - It's up to your risk factor 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MatthewL]

I've used Dell servers in production for best part of 20 years, don't think I would buy anything else.  Have used HP at home but never in full on production but I would never dismiss them but I think for my own sanity it would be Dell!

 

Have used PowerEdge and Blade chassis with various SAN's, if I am honest with you not even sure what our current storage is without looking, think its Dell, again cannot fault it.

 

I do like HP kit but their prices last time I looked didn't work for me, so I moved away from their products, I know Dell are not cheap either but peace of mind wins.

I have encounted various other brands over the years and nothing stood out as been aweful but I suppose you get used to what you use the most.

[5nowman]

Dell all the way.

Just remember to check the size of the cabinet!

Network cabinets are not Server Cabinets lol.

 

Check the depth too. 

The biggest pain about Dell servers and TBH the only pain are the installation of the server rails!

 

As with all Dell Servers.. install the Dell open manage and always go for the PSU redundency regardless what server you go with.

 

Good Luck!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

18 hours ago, dhicks said:

If you haven't tried them already, ICT Direct @ICTDirect_Dave (one of the forum sponsors) do good prices on nearly-new servers, Dell included, complete with proper warrenties.

Yep!  I can knock the socks off anything new spec-wise and for a fraction of the price!

[Sephiroth]

Absolutely agree with all of the above. I've used HP, Dell, SuperMicro, and IBM servers in my career and would go Dell every time if I had the choice. Everything we currently have is Dell Poweredge. Personally I have a Dell Poweredge Hyper-V server that replaced my HP one, and I much prefer the Dell, though that's mostly personal preference. I would advise sticking to either Dell or HP.

 

We've had a few servers from @ICTDirect_Dave and can vouch for the hardware quality and support, even with replacement parts for servers not bought through them. Fantastic hardware at the right price, especially when looking at HCI.

 

The other supplier that we have used is ServerSource, who do newer systems at a higher price-point, but with similar warranty and good support. We've had a few servers from them and can't fault them.

 

We used to have 3 VMWare ESXi hosts and a SAN. That was great but outdated towards the end of it's life. Last refresh (~2018) we went with Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct. So much simpler to deal with and manage. We're now considering what to do moving forward, but the consensus is to get 3 2nd hand units and downsize the storage and compute as we're moving a lot to The Cloud™

[Fazza]

We've been using Dell servers for decades now and wouldn't dream of switching to anything else.

 

We never buy new though.  We get refurbished ones with a 5y onsite warranty from the likes of www.serversource.co.uk - have a chat with Joe with what your requirements are as they can pretty much sell you anthing you want/need!  Their website/emails only show a fraction of what they can sell you (at a lot less than Dell sell them) and my personal experience is that their support/aftersales (should you need it) is fantastic - very responsive and never had to quibble anything.