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Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 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
7.2
Number of Reviews
268
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (1st), Data Center Networking (2nd), Blade Servers (4th)
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 25.9%, down from 27.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 3.9%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series25.9%
HPE Apollo Systems3.9%
Other70.2%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2776431 - PeerSpot reviewer
Supply Chain and Procurement Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Relied on consistent support and efficient hardware to streamline engineering test environments
Currently, it is sometimes challenging when a component gets out of fashion or is no longer available at end of life, to quickly get a drop-in replacement. I would appreciate an XE version of the server where we have some drop-in replacements lined up beforehand, and we already know how to validate them. Right now, when this happens, we have about three months to validate the new systems, and that is usually a little short notice for us. I am already happy we get the time we get. I do have something to say about customer service and support. From time to time, we need to get special licenses or extended warranties or other items, especially for end customers. I think that could be streamlined. Right now, there is a human factor in it; there is not a click and buy option. This could save Dell some time to iterate that as well. If we have a technical question, it can take a little time, especially if we are trying to reach the Dutch support line. Usually, we still get redirected to a UK representative, which is acceptable because I speak English, but some of our customers are a little less happy. It would be beneficial if there were more local technical support. All of our questions get answered usually within a day or two, which I consider pretty quick. If it is high priority or critical, it gets answered within a couple of hours.
Gökhan  DURMAZ - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at TD SYNNEX
High-quality integration and strong support have optimized our rack server operations
HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity. When I speak about integrity, I speak about GPU integration or other integrations such as GPU integration, backup software integration, and hypervisor integration. Regarding the integration of high-speed interconnectors in HPE Apollo Systems, they impact computational tasks because the high-speed interconnect affects performance. I don't remember the specifics. Regarding the cooling technologies, they help to reduce operational costs. The positive impact I see from HPE Apollo Systems is that support is good and quality is good. In general, HPE Apollo Systems appears to be for rack servers with some optimization capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The lifecycle has been expanded because it is useful to use the older hardware that we have decommissioned for new use cases; they do not go immediately into e-waste."
"We were running out of memory, and that was the first time we heard of a solution that supports a terabyte of core memory. That was the primary reason we got the first box. We've stayed with it since then because we have so many Dell workstations."
"We do not have much workload right now. We are happy with whatever we have tested."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge R-Series server is the processing speed; the processing speed is the most important thing that we are looking for in a server, and we want it to function fast as the latency is the most important between the end user and our servers to get the application and to get the feedback from the application."
"We are using the Dell PowerEdge Rack Server for core banking applications. It is working fine and we are happy with it."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is the ease of use, as it allows me to spin up different OSes on it without having to go through a bunch of hoops."
"It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%."
"The product is very stable."
"The solution is well documented in a data sheet."
"It's very reliable. I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it."
"It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage."
"I find HPE Apollo Systems to be scalable and efficient for AI initiatives, and the environmental efficiency has a significant impact on operational costs."
"Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world"
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system."
"we can use the same platform for several use cases: Hadoop, Ceph, and we are considering the server for another use case right now. It's a single solution, we only have to integrate it once and we can use it for several technologies."
"We usually use three blades for two-rack units, and with enough storage, it's really a small system with a powerful CPU, powerful hard drives, powerful disks."
 

Cons

"More integration to third-party services would be a great upgrade."
"Currently, we are facing issues with updates, particularly on the driver side. We did not receive proper communication about upcoming driver upgrades and other aspects."
"Enriching the operational efficiency of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could be achieved through the strategic implementation of a central management console hosted in the cloud."
"Different types of applications that are now trendy in the market, like AI, are still big topics that are not mapped correctly in the server and storage environment. Knowing those kinds of activities and definitions will help us more to position these kinds of servers for the client."
"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."
"There is no advantage compared to other vendors when tracking return on investment."
"The pricing could be better, as budget is always a huge thing for us."
"In Pakistan, the vendors or the partners of Dell are not providing a good environment. They need to improve their support and hire partners that have certified support sources."
"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."
"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."
"We could, perhaps, use more GPUs in the future, go from eight to 16 GPUs per instance. That could run head-to-head against the DGX-1, the DGX-2 that NVIDIA has developed in their own chassis. That would be interesting to see."
"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."
"I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."
"What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing comes with a warranty."
"The pricing for this solution is reasonable. We pay a basic premium with a military premium on top of that."
"The licensing is expensive and inflexible."
"PowerEdge pricing is equivalent to that of all the others in the market."
"The pricing and licensing are fair."
"Dell is pretty good. good. I had a conversation with Dell a while ago due to a vendor. We got much better pricing from a competitor. When I looked at another company, Dell called me and asked why am I looking at someone else when they have a distributor. I told them that their pricing was not good, so Dell went back to the distributor, and we got much better pricing"
"It's abundantly clear that the specific licensing requirements will be dictated by the intricacies of the machinery we deploy."
"The pricing is good compared to other products."
"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business95
Midsize Enterprise59
Large Enterprise112
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise13
 

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 am not the right person to talk about improvements for Dell PowerEdge R-Series because I am not related to the networking aspect; I am related to CAE. At my end, everything looks good for me. In ...
What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
Some features could be added to HPE Apollo Systems in the future, and I feel that some capability is needed. HPE Apollo Systems is a bit expensive, and there are some issues with scalability. Two f...
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
I have been distributing this product for three years. I don't have specific use cases, and everything about the major use case for HPE Apollo Systems is good. I don't know the purpose clients are ...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
I am not using these products today, and I do not work with some specific firewalls. My company is TD Synnex, a distributor company, and I work for this company. My email is , and my first name is ...
 

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.