Dell EMC Releases PowerEdge R440 & R540

Announced in May and then launched in July, the fourteenth generation (14G) of Dell EMC’s PowerEdge servers were completely redesigned with a focus on scalability, automation, and integrated security while providing the agility, flexibility, and efficiency companies need through their digital transformations. Dell EMC has taken a slightly different approach in releasing new servers in the line, with smaller announcements more spread out through the year, such as they did last week with the T640. Once again Dell EMC is releasing two more servers in the PowerEdge Line, the R440 and the R540.

As with all servers in the PowerEdge 14G line, the ones announced today are aimed toward continual improvement and customer satisfaction. The servers are directed at two different markets: the R440 is geared for the midmarket and the R540 is geared more for high-growth commercial businesses. In other words, the R440 is aimed at guys in the middle and the R540 is aimed at guys in the middle looking to rapidly grow.

The Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G R440 is a 1U dense server ideal for running virtualization applications and software-defined storage. The R440 comes with up to two Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs and up to 512GB of DDR4 memory to pack plenty of performance power. This small server takes up less of a footprint in the data center but can still be equipped with either four 3.5” drives or ten 2.5” drives.

Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G R440 key specifications:

Form Factor: 1U
CPU: Up to two Intel Xeon Scalable processors, up to 22 cores per processor
Memory
- DDR4 DIMM slots: 16
- Max memory: 512GB
- Supported: RDIMM /LRDIMM, speeds up to 2666MTs
Drive bays
- Front drive bays: Up to 10 x 2.5” SAS/SATA (HDD/SSD) with up to 4 NVMe SSD max 48TB
- Or up to 4 x 3.5 SAS/SATA HDD max 40TB
- Optional DVD-ROM, DVD+RW
I/O and Ports
- Network options
  - 2 x 1GE LOM
  - (optional) OCP 2 x 10GE SFP+ or BaseT or 2 x 1GE
- Front ports
  - Video, 1 x USB 2.0, available USB 3.0, dedicated IDRAC Direct USB
- Rear ports
  - Video, serial, 2 x USB 3.0, dedicated iDRAC network port
- PCIe
  - Up to 2 x Gen 3 slots all x16
Supported Operating Systems
- Canonical Ubuntu LTS
- Citrix XenServer
- Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- VMware ESXi
Power Supplies:
- Gold 450W
- Platinum 550W
Chassis depth
- 4×3.5
  - 728.23 mm Front Bezel to Rear PSU Handle
  - 714.58 mm Front plate (no bezel) to Rear PSU Handle
- 8×2.5
  - 677.45 mm Front Bezel to Rear PSU Handle
  - 676.92 mm Front plate (no bezel) to Rear PSU Handle
- 10×2.5
  - 728.23 mm Front Bezel to Rear PSU Handle
  - 714.58 mm Front plate (no bezel) to Rear PSU Handle

The Dell EMC 14G PowerEdge R540 is a 2U, 2 socket rack server built to handle messaging, video surveillance, web-serving, and software-defined storage, amongst other workloads. While it too comes with an upward of 512GB of memory, the R540 is more storage focused with up to 140TB of capacity making it a good choice for software-defined storage.

Dell EMC 14G PowerEdge R540 key specifications:

Form Factor: 2U
CPU: Up to two Intel Xeon Scalable processors, up to 20 cores per processor
Memory
- DDR4 DIMM slots: 16
- Max memory: 512GB
- Supported: RDIMM /LRDIMM, speeds up to 2666MTs
Drive Bays
- Front drive bays: Up to 12 x 3.5” SAS/SATA HDD max 120TB
- Rear drive bays: Up to 2 x 3.5 SAS/SATA HDD
- Optional DVD-ROM, DVD+RW
I/O and Ports
- Network options
  - 2 x 1GE LOM
  - (optional) OCP 2 x 10GE SFP+ or BaseT or 2 x 1GE
- Front ports
  - Video, 1 x USB 2.0, available USB 3.0, dedicated IDRAC Direct USB
- Rear ports
  - Video, serial, 2 x USB 3.0, dedicated iDRAC network port
- PCIe
  - Non rear storage config:
    - 1 x FH/FL + 1 x HH/HL (2U Right riser) slots + 3HH/HL slots
  - Rear storage config:
    - 1 x HH/HL (1U Left Riser) + 1 x HH/HL (1U Right risers) slot or 1 x HH/HL (1U Left Riser) + 1 x FH/HL (1U Right riser)
Supported Operating Systems
- Canonical Ubuntu LTS
- Citrix XenServer
- Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- VMware ESXi
Chassis depth
- Max depth: 693.81 mm (w/bezel)
- Max depth: 707.74 mm (w/o bezel)

Both of the new 14G PowerEdge servers come with iDRAC and Lifecycle Controller, which the company states can deliver smart automation of everyday tasks. Both servers also can be simply managed by Quick Sync 2 and the OpenManage Essentials console.

Availability and Pricing

Both servers are available now. The R440 starts at $1,629 and the R540 starts at $1,849.

Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G R440

Dell EMC 14G PowerEdge R540

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