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Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs Dell XR2 Rugged Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

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 Rack Servers
Ranking in Rack Servers
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
171
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (5th)
Dell XR2 Rugged Server
Ranking in Rack Servers
14th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 27.8%, down from 28.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XR2 Rugged Server is 0.6%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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 DRA cards for server management is the most valuable feature. They provide a clear overview of server settings and issues. We also like that the notifications are well-organized."
"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."
"Overall, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in our environment a nine out of ten."
"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."
"Any necessary adjustments can be made seamlessly without the need to unplug cables, as everything is contained within the rack itself."
"The core strength of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers lies in their expansive connectivity and seamless integration with other offerings within the Dell product ecosystem."
"We like their quality. I have also dealt with HPE and other manufacturers. In terms of service, Dell is optimal."
"We use remote access a lot. They are fairly simple to use."
"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

"I do not have any qualms or problems with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. However, when it comes to the software, some of their competitors are already feeding a lot of performance and availability data to an online platform. We have not seen that with PowerEdge."
"There is room for improvement in technical support."
"The servers get slower at the end of their life cycle. The technology needs to evolve."
"The quality of support for this solution varies. Sometimes you get agents who are amazing and other times you get agents who take a long time to resolve your query."
"They could improve the time between new versions of the product."
"We have storage and would like to manage more backups without adding extra storage devices. Maybe it's already there. I need to look at it more."
"I want Dell to offer more virtualization platforms because the cost of VMware is getting too high."
"We do encounter power supply failures from time to time."
"Dell XR2 Rugged Server could improve if there was more customization allowed."
"It lacks a modular option to expand to a 16-bay system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"The pricing is great; very competitive. That's the reason we bought hundreds of them."
"There is room for improvement in making it more cost-effective."
"Dell's solution was cheaper than HP's solution."
"The price is good for the quality of the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."
"We have not compared them with others. The price is okay, but they can always be a little bit cheaper."
"When you compare public cloud solutions to PowerEdge in terms of cost, initially the cost of Dell servers or Dell technology was really high. However, right now it's on par or, maybe, even cheaper when we use Dell hardware. If we don't swap it out in three years and if we stretch it to four or five years, then we can get even more of an ROI versus cloud cost."
"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
22%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
6%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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?
The price of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is competitive. There's always room for support improvements, and the AI features could continue to be enhanced as the relationship with Nvidia grows.
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Also Known As

PowerEdge R
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 Rack Servers vs. Dell XR2 Rugged Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.