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Dell PowerEdge FX [EOL] vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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 FX [EOL]
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
307
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (1st), Data Center Networking (3rd), Blade Servers (2nd), Rack Servers (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

MP
IT Lead at Meditab Software, Inc.
Offers a user-friendly interface and saves costs in data centers
Dell PowerEdge FX is very good and user-friendly, with a console that is easy to manage, and it is budget-friendly compared to other products. Dell PowerEdge FX has made management very good and easy for us, and we have created virtual machines on these PowerEdge servers as well. The modular design of Dell PowerEdge FX is very beneficial for our IT operations because it is small and compact, fitting easily into our data center rack while saving physical space and power. They have a capable technical support team that helps to resolve issues, and their regular updates to hardware components and communication keep us up to date with challenges. Dell PowerEdge FX has some features that we noticed for supporting AI initiatives or data-intensive applications, but we are planning to explore all the features in depth.
Tom van Mil - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator at Lico Innovations B.v.
Supports flexible hosting needs through seamless upgradability and strong monitoring capabilities
The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me are the feature richness and the upgradability. I really love the way that it is so dynamically applicable for every situation, and they manage to have an all-in-one solution for every single situation. Dell PowerEdge has supported the growth and operational success of my company through its great compute power and price-to-performance ratio. Every time Dell is at the top of its game for us, and there is just no other brand for us that is able to reach that kind of price-to-performance ratio. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of my small company, such as iDRAC. The iDRAC system is a complete feature set for managing servers and hardware technically and monitoring-wise. It really fits in our system and our ecosystem, and monitoring-wise, it is excellent. They have all these sensors available via different protocols and end points, which I love, and the ability to manage and control everything via the iDRAC interface is just a welcome bonus. In our use case, Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very flexible. It is another computer which helps a lot because of the durability over time. They keep running, making scalability for getting more of those resources in our environment so easy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a scalable solution. My company hasn't faced any difficulties related to the product's performance and scalability since Dell ensures to provide a high-performance service."
"The setup is straightforward. It can take anywhere from an hour to half a day."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple and easy."
"Once we virtualize the infrastructure, it is very easy to upgrade."
"It's a stable and scalable solution our customers can rely on for their applications, especially physical applications."
"The most valuable feature is its stability."
"The best feature is PowerEdge's ability to stack up eight blade servers in one 2U chassis."
"The console and user-friendly UI of Dell PowerEdge FX are the most valuable features. Its interface is easy to understand even for non-technical users."
"I've never had any down time with this solution and it's very user friendly."
"iDRAC is the most valuable feature because of the ease of use and management and everything that it provides is super useful. The security features that PowerEdge provides, including firmware threat detection is good."
"Nowadays, iDRAC is very important. It is one of the features that we use the most because we do not always have physical access to our machines. iDRAC is a tool that we use daily. If we did not have it, it would be very complicated to manage the machines. This is a great feature."
"The hardware itself is pleasant to work with. The management ability, particularly the out-of-band management, seems quite nice. The ecosystem tooling is also pleasant to work with. Additionally, Dell offers good support, and the servers are reliable."
"The stability is good, it also lasts a relatively long time, our customers are typically looking for something that will hold up for about five years, and this solution does that, as it's not buggy, there aren't glitches, and it doesn't crash or break down."
"Dell PowerEdge R-Series improves my organization mainly as a time saver and in terms of reliability, so we know we have equipment that is reliable."
"From a technical perspective, the iDRAC system's most valuable feature is its performance, while from the customer's perspective, it is the other features."
"We have a great representative, LaShonda, who helps us navigate that."
 

Cons

"The system is good, but compared to open-source and assembled servers, it is somewhat costly."
"When it comes to Dell PowerEdge FX, the area of concern revolves around the delivery time where improvements are required."
"It should have more simplified management. It is a common problem where vendors think that they have simplified a solution, but the users don't look at it in the same way. A vendor thinks that there are only ten steps for a task, but we consider them as many steps. It should also have more support for NVMe. For high performance and speed, there should also be more network cards for the fiber channel and ethernet."
"I don't have any technical issues, but I would like to see the commercial side improve as compared to all other OEMs."
"I would prefer the next releases of Dell PowerEdge FX to be easier to use and flexible to upgrade. Sometimes, we have to do the tasks manually, but automation would be very helpful."
"The positioning of the power supply is not ideal. Both of them are on the same side, so you need to untie the cabling when you're installing the server. Another thing is storage separation. The storage can only be used by a particular server blade. I want the ability to use a storage unit for more than one server."
"Before the cloud solution and virtualization, we relied on Dell hardware from specific vendors. The lifecycle for cloud infrastructure is shorter than it used to be. We need a longer lifecycle from the IT supplier providing the computing solution."
"There are times when a part might break down and we need to have Dell replace it."
"I would like to see more information about server health and the server's state, on the front. HP has a little screen that shows server utilization, how many disks there are inside, and the power consumption. HP also shows an alert if there is a malfunction of any device inside."
"The price could possibly use improvement. Dell servers are not the most affordable, and pricing is always a consideration. Otherwise, I don't see any specific areas for improvement."
"One area where Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve is integration."
"While I wouldn't call it a problem, physically mounting the servers into the rails that come with the servers can be a challenge. They could be engineered to be a little bit easier to use. It's not that significant, we can manage it, but you need at least two people to do it together because they're a bit heavy."
"Reduced cabling and improved power consumption management would be beneficial improvements."
"Many things could be improved, and maybe Dell PowerEdge R-Series could help us with that, but that would require development, and it is possible that it could definitely help us."
"The only challenge we have with the product is keeping it in line with VMware, knowing that VMware has now gone with a different provider."
"Non-vendor-specific things could benefit Dell PowerEdge R-Series. Dell has a lot of OEM material, obviously, because it is an OEM provider, but it could benefit from more AMD, more ARM, and more across the line."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of Dell PowerEdge FX depends on the configuration we are using. We usually pay $5,000 to $10,000 based on the configuration, including RAM and storage."
"The price of the license is expensive."
"Compared to other brands, this solution is the cheapest. I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."
"I rate the product price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"Payments are generally made towards the perpetual-based licensing costs attached to the solution, but people can also opt for subscription-based licenses."
"The price of Dell PowerEdge FX is affordable, and when compared to other solutions, such as Lenovo and HPE it is less expensive. There are any extra costs other than the standard solution."
"The pricing for this solution is competitive compared to others on the market."
"Dell is priced better than alternative solutions."
"I personally think the pricing and licensing of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is actually fairly decent, though the way the business runs leads to sticker shock anytime we give them a quote."
"The overall pricing and licensing are fair according to the market."
"At present, the pricing seems a bit high for us."
"It's a bit of a shock when you have to find the money, but the pricing is very competitive, so I'm happy with that."
"I have no issues with the pricing and licensing costs. They are fine."
"The high cost of Dell PowerEdge Rack Server licenses is attributed to the pre-installed Windows Server operating system from Microsoft."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business110
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise128
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge FX?
The cost of Dell PowerEdge FX depends on the configuration we are using. We usually pay $5,000 to $10,000 based on the configuration, including RAM and storage.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge FX?
The system is good, but compared to open-source and assembled servers, it is somewhat costly. If it were cheaper, it would be even better. I would prefer the next releases of Dell PowerEdge FX to b...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge FX?
We are providing the end-user experience by creating virtual machines on the server and assigning them to our clients. We set up multiple virtual machines on the Dell PowerEdge FX server and isolat...
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 needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
I think Dell PowerEdge R-Series can support more storage capacity, which would be great. Most other OEMs are trying to ensure you have a one-stop shop for just one server where you could get a whol...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
My main use case for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is to use it as standalone servers but also as part of some clusters. I have some OpenStack private cloud deployed on them and some Ceph software-define...
 

Also Known As

PowerEdge FX
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tracewell, Govers, AXA ASSISTANCE ITALIA
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Rack Servers. Updated: June 2026.
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