Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Rack Servers category. Dell Technologies is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 2.6% mindshare in Rack Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Read 12 Dell PowerEdge XE-Series reviews

1,075 Views
1,075 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HPE Apollo Systems

Read 25 HPE Apollo Systems reviews

2,298 Views
1,999 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

HPE Apollo Systems

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

HPE Apollo Systems and Dell PowerEdge XE-Series are high-performance computing platforms, with HPE leading in affordability and support, while Dell stands out in features and performance.

Features: HPE Apollo Systems provide optimized workload management, scalable configurations, and energy-efficient performance suited for data-intensive tasks. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series offers extensive customization, robust security features, and superior processing power ideal for compute-heavy applications.

Room for Improvement: HPE Apollo Systems could improve their customization options, reduce initial setup complexity, and enhance processing power for compute-heavy tasks. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series might benefit from streamlined deployment processes, more cost-effective configurations, and improvements in customer service response times.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE Apollo Systems excel in streamlined deployment and responsive customer service, ensuring quick implementation. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, although comprehensive in support, involves more complex deployment, potentially leading to longer setup times.

Pricing and ROI: HPE Apollo Systems typically offer competitive setup costs with promising ROI attributed to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In contrast, Dell PowerEdge XE-Series requires a higher initial investment but is justified by advanced features necessary for power-intensive operations, making it worthwhile for those prioritizing these capabilities despite the larger price tag.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems

April 2026

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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 XE-Series

Ranking in Rack Servers

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE Apollo Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is 2.6%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 4.6%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
HPE Apollo Systems	4.6%
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series	2.6%
Other	92.8%

Rack Servers

Featured Reviews

Palatla Srikanth

Lead Solution Architect at Avineon India Private Limited

Infrastructure has delivered reliable control for diverse heavy imagery and application workloads

I think most of them are in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series. What I found in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers is the disk reading; sometimes with heavy imagery, we find it to be slow. Some of our workloads utilize heavy imagery, which could be several terabytes or gigabytes in size, so when accessing imagery, we find disk read to be a bit slow. I need to check with my team, but I recently noticed some compatibility issues with disk upgrades and RAM upgrades in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, and limitations were there. In the upcoming series, I hope to see flexibility in adding GPUs and similar features. I would rate this review an overall eight out of ten.

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Gökhan DURMAZ

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution has brought us a return on investment. It can store a lot of hard disks, which helps users to have a lot of capacity in smaller rack space."

"The strong point of this solution is its compatibility with VMware and its resilience."

"The resource management features are valuable."

"In Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, the control is good, and they are very adaptable, affordable, and easy to learn."

"The solution has almost everything."

"PowerEdge XE is quite stable."

"This is a very stable product; we have implemented more than 60 servers over the past three years and we have not come across any issues with stability, making it a very reliable server."

"Its reliability and consistency are most valuable."

More Dell PowerEdge XE-Series pros

"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."

"We are running Apollo with SL-series servers and the best thing about them is the density of the storage area available."

"HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity."

"Taking into consideration the cost, HPE gave us the ability to actually do what we wanted to do."

"Stability has been extremely good."

"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."

"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."

"For us, the most valuable features are the price and density."

More HPE Apollo Systems pros

Cons

"Dell PowerEdge XE Servers can improve by adapting HCI technology."

"It is mostly stable, but the usual problem would be, for example, upgrading to a newer version of VMware or dealing with compatibility issues during the process."

"What I found in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers is the disk reading; sometimes with heavy imagery, we find it to be slow."

"The support team must improve the speed of response."

"In future releases, there should be more support options for the latest processor."

"I would like to have support for performing a detailed analysis of the server from a mobile device."

"It should be easier to extend PowerEdge XE servers. We haven't architected them with an eye toward scalability. They have a fixed number of slots for hard drives, which is enough for our present use case, However, we would have more options if we could extend that. We could deploy the servers in a broader range of use cases with different requirements. It's fine for our current deployment with only a few thousand users. We're exploring other solutions like such as VxRail or PowerFlex for larger public-facing use cases."

More Dell PowerEdge XE-Series cons

"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."

"Big stability issues with the CPU on the first generation which made them virtually unusable."

"One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it."

"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."

"The technical support for HPE Apollo Systems could be improved."

"We are struggling a little bit with some of the configuration we need to do, particularly with write capability to drives."

"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."

"The solution could improve the hardware, such as the motherboard or servers. We have had hardware faults in the past."

More HPE Apollo Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You always want slightly cheaper, but overall, they are quite comparable and quite neutral."

"Dell has competitive pricing."

"The pricing model is quite competitive."

"There are different types of licensing available, that works well for customers. The product is not very much to purchase."

"If you want an SLA for parts and equipment then you need to purchase a support agreement."

"This solution is priced very reasonably."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

University

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?

What I found in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers is the disk reading; sometimes with heavy imagery, we find it to be slow. Some of our workloads utilize heavy imagery, which could be several teraby...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?

I deal mostly with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, specifically the XE-Series. My team uses Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers, but I have not used it much myself. We ha...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?

See all answers

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...

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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 ...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 17% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

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Oracle SPARC Servers vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

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IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 17% of the time

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Moonshot vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Synergy vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 6% of the time

Lenovo High-Density Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

April 2026

Download Dell PowerEdge XE-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems

April 2026

Download HPE Apollo Systems product report

Also Known As

PowerEdge XE Servers

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo

Overview

The PowerEdge XE-Series caters to AI-centric workloads by offering exceptional GPU support and processing power for demanding tasks like inferencing and large-scale training, making it ideal for organizations aiming to innovate with AI.

PowerEdge XE-Series stands out in modern GPU-centric computing with its purpose-built design for AI acceleration. Known for handling extreme workloads like model fine-tuning and AI-driven applications, it supports high-density GPU configurations and advanced thermal management. Its vast storage capacity and compatibility with VMware ensure reliable performance across virtualization, big data, and analytics while providing trusted security integration and robust scalability options. However, improvements in processor support, reliability, and management monitoring are sought by users.

What are the key features of PowerEdge XE-Series?

High-Density GPU Support: Configures multiple GPUs for demanding AI tasks.
Advanced Thermal Design: Optimizes cooling for enhanced performance.
Vast Storage Capacity: Supports up to 32 drives for extensive data management.
Compatibility: Works seamlessly with platforms like VMware.
Security Integration: Includes trusted platform modules for data protection.

What benefits should users expect from PowerEdge XE-Series?

Efficient AI Management: Enhances AI workloads with advanced processing.
Scalability: Adapts to growing demands in virtualization and big data.
Security: Offers robust data protection and reliability.
Improved Resource Management: Facilitates straightforward setup and usage.

In different industries, PowerEdge XE-Series is utilized for hosting SaaS, high-performance computing, and general-purpose servers. System integrators use it in client networks for applications like Hadoop, backup, and ERP. It supports virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructure solutions. Real estate sectors leverage iDRAC for efficient management, enhancing data security, power, and network redundancy.

Dell Technologies

The HPE Apollo high-density server family is built for the highest levels of performance and efficiency. They are rack-scale compute, storage, networking, power and cooling – massively scale-up and scale-out – solutions for your big data analytics, object storage and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. From water-cooling that’s 1,000X more efficient than air, to “right-sized scaling” with 2X the compute density for workgroup and private cloud workloads, the HPE Apollo line is a dense, high-performance, tiered approach for organisations of all sizes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Epsilon, ROZETTA CORP, JIGUANG, RACKSPACE, NEW BELGIUM BREWING

Weta Digital

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems

April 2026

Free Report: Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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