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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Dell PowerEdge XR-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2025

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 R-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (4th), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (4th)
Dell PowerEdge XR-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Rugged Servers (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 27.6%, down from 28.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XR-Series is 0.5%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series27.6%
Dell XR2 Rugged Server0.5%
Other71.9%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently
We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.
Jesse_B - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to scale, high availability, and top level service and support
Dell XR2 Rugged Server's technology is always on the competitive edge, with the most current technology. They have proven reliability. If you're looking for a mission-critical system and support is important to you, then this is something a solution you should consider. I rate Dell XR2 Rugged Server a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user interface is very simple, and the support team is always happy to answer any questions we have. They are very easy to contact."
"The solution is very strong and reliable."
"The reliability combined with management is what we like. The price is good too."
"I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten."
"One of the key reasons we integrate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, particularly the ID Rack model, is for its remote monitoring and administration capabilities."
"The most valuable feature, when I compare Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers with other brands available, is the price versus performance, as I get more for what I pay, and mostly, we use this for our CAD workloads."
"We receive Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vSAN-ready, making it quite easy to install the ESXi software and get a VMware cluster up and running."
"The fact that they came pre-installed was quite good. We didn't have to worry too much about that process... Also, the maintenance part makes it very easy to raise queries and get repairs done."
"The scalability of the Dell XR2 Rugged Server is good and easy to do."
"The storage and the disc performance in terms of IOPS is great."
 

Cons

"They should reduce its size. Because the CPU power is more now, they can reduce the size of the servers. Currently, we have a 2U server. If possible, they can make a 1U server."
"The performance could be a bit better."
"Capacity and performance could always be improved."
"While we are generally satisfied with their service, we'd like more connections between meetings and proactive support. We had a session about two weeks ago, where we talked about areas they need to improve."
"When trying to piece out a server for our builds, there are so many different SKUs—probably 30 to 40 SKUs—that it can be difficult to read. If that could be condensed a little bit, that would help."
"The pricing can be better. These are expensive machines."
"Speaking on the XE series specifically, the internal service to the system, if you need to get to a DIMM or anything similar, requires that you remove all three risers and the storage controller. It's not very internally service friendly."
"The ways Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve relate more to the educational aspects of how customers can continue to leverage technology, which presents challenges."
"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server could improve if there was more customization allowed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing comes with a warranty."
"Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers are very expensive."
"They are affordable. Even during our recent procurement, the cost of Dell servers was lower than that of HPE."
"The more complex the server requirements, the more expensive it gets."
"The pricing is fair enough."
"I know the pricing for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers went up last year, and we weren't too happy about that, but it is what it is."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"It's pretty much on par."
"The price of one Dell XR2 Rugged Server is approximately $10,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise51
Large Enterprise85
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
I don't have any issues or complaints with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, but they could make the service tags larger as I get older. It's not that they aren't customizable; you can actually use ...
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Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
XR2 Rugged Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
DIGISTOR - Secure Data Storage
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XR-Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
866,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.