Dell announced an upgrade to its PowerEdge servers designed for small businesses. The update brings Intel's latest Skylake-based Xeon processors to the mix to deliver a big jump in performance using a single-socket design.
The SMB lineup includes two server models, a rack-based PowerEdge R230 and a tower-based PowerEdge T330. Dell claims that these servers are designed for growth, and they come with features that make future upgrades a breeze. These models join Dell's 13th generation PowerEdge family.
PowerEdge R230
In addition to maxing out performance with the Intel Xeon E3 1200 v5 CPU family, the servers also come with support for DDR4 memory, which delivers 33% performance gains compared to older DDR3 RAM. PCIe Gen 3.0 slots also boost I/O performance, and Dell claims that its latest PERC9 RAID controller can deliver up to two times the IOPS performance.
The Dell PowerEdge R230 comes in a 1U chassis with three times the maximum internal storage capacity and two times the I/O expansion compared to the previous generation. It also has 100% more memory capacity. Memory caps out at 64GB. There are two PCIe 3.0 slots, and the rack supports an array of HDDs and SSDs.
For ports, the front panel has a VGA connector and two USB 2.0 ports. The rear accommodates two USB 3.0 ports, a VGA connector, serial connector and three RJ45 ports. There's also an internal USB 3.0 port.
Towers and more
For a tower-based server, the Dell PowerEdge T330 comes with up to four DDR4 memory slots and eight 3.5-inch hard drives.
In addition to these models, the 1U rack-based Dell PowerEdge R330 comes with more more powerful configurations designed for larger organizations, while the entry-level PowerEdge T130 comes with Dell's OpenManage to reduce deployment time by up to 40%. The T130 also features twice the memory capacity than the previous generation, and Dell is positioning this for small offices and home offices (SOHO).
All server models support Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 x64, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and VMWare Vsphere 2015. The R330 also supports SUS Linux Enterprise Server version 12 SP1 and version 11 SP4. That model has an extra PCIe internal for internal storage.
The PowerEdge R230 starts at $659 (£433, AU$934), the PowerEdge T330 starts at $959 (£630, AU$1,359), the PowerEdge T330 starts at $689 (£452, AU$976) and the PowerEdge T130 starts at $509 (£334, AU$721) through Dell. All models are available for order now.
- For more robust performance, read our Dell PowerEdge R730 review
