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Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems 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 XE-Series
Ranking in Rack Servers
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Rack Servers
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Density Optimized Servers (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is 3.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 5.6%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rack Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series3.1%
HPE Apollo Systems5.6%
Other91.3%
Rack Servers
 

Featured Reviews

MW
Senior Solution Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Flexible management has delivered reliable uptime and supported diverse workloads efficiently
There are some areas for improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series; it's more of a Dell issue. They've promised changes, but engaging with Dell sometimes means they will take the customer on a direct model and cut the partner out. This isn't a technical issue, but a business one. When architecting a solution and introducing Dell to a customer, you sometimes get an email saying the customer wants to buy directly from Dell, leaving all my hard work and introductions for nothing. I believe Dell could add new features to Dell PowerEdge XE-Series in the future. There are many more CPU variants available than just Intel and AMD, and it would be nice to have a major vendor introduce another option outside of those. While I know it's difficult due to supportability and changes, that would just be a preference.
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

"PowerEdge XE is quite stable."
"Its reliability and consistency are most valuable."
"The solution is flexible in my experience."
"Running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge XE-Series has been good value and reliable, with no issues so far."
"The most beneficial features in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, in terms of capabilities and functions, are the maturity of the management, particularly iDRAC, and from an out-of-band management perspective, I rate iDRAC as the best."
"The most valuable feature is that it can support up to 32 drives of internal storage."
"PowerEdge XE servers are high-performing. We're hardly using 15 percent of their computing power, so there's a lot left over that we could utilize."
"One of the most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge XE Servers is the ease of fixing issues if there are any."
"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."
"For us, the most valuable features are the price and density."
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable."
"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."
"I find HPE Apollo Systems to be scalable and efficient for AI initiatives, and the environmental efficiency has a significant impact on operational costs."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance on that."
"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, and it's been a pretty good product so far."
"It's pretty flexible."
 

Cons

"What I found in Dell PowerEdge XE-Series servers is the disk reading; sometimes with heavy imagery, we find it to be slow."
"I would like to have support for performing a detailed analysis of the server from a mobile device."
"One requirement is the storage protocol, as the external storage protocol is not much used in the platform; only iSCSI is used and there is no support for FC or FC over NVMe."
"The quality and reliability could be improved."
"The big problem with Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is the volatility in pricing, so trying to find stability is pretty important to us."
"We use OpenManager a lot, and that can be a bit clunky at times. They can make that better."
"Current data centers are not ready to support heavy AI HPC clusters."
"In future releases, there should be more support options for the latest processor."
"What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security."
"Connectivity to the outside of the server needs to be improved at the same time the network is improving."
"OpenView is a new product which does not support older versions of the hardware."
"The licensing could be greatly improved, I think."
"The solution could improve the hardware, such as the motherboard or servers. We have had hardware faults in the past."
"HPE Apollo Systems is a bit expensive, and there are some issues with scalability."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell has competitive pricing."
"If you want an SLA for parts and equipment then you need to purchase a support agreement."
"This solution is priced very reasonably."
"You always want slightly cheaper, but overall, they are quite comparable and quite neutral."
"There are different types of licensing available, that works well for customers. The product is not very much to purchase."
"The pricing model is quite competitive."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"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."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
TCO percentage shows up to 73, 75, 80% improvement in power efficiency.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
In future updates of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, I would appreciate dashboard optimization and AI integration. I am not utilizing any AI functionality of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series at this time.
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?
I have used Dell PowerEdge XE-Series, which is a bit different series of rack server. The primary purposes of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series in my case are for servers, as we host multiple applications. ...
What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
It is too early to say what improvements HPE Apollo Systems could implement because the report still needs to come out and the customer needs to properly evaluate the solution.
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
My main use case for HPE Apollo Systems is replacing many of the servers and storage boxes at one of the customer's sites to achieve workload optimization and optimized solutions. Additionally, whe...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
My advice for someone considering HPE Apollo Systems is that if they are looking for consolidation and their workload involves high availability requirements, or if they want to utilize GPUs, then ...
 

Also Known As

PowerEdge XE Servers
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Epsilon, ROZETTA CORP, JIGUANG, RACKSPACE, NEW BELGIUM BREWING
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.