Dell PowerEdge R810 review

When Intel announces its latest server processors, Dell is usually never far behind. With the PowerEdge R810, Dell has outdone even itself this time. Barely have the Xeon 6500 and 7500 Nehalem-EX processors been launched and we have one here already for an exclusive review.

At first glance, the R810 and its 2U chassis doesn’t look that different to the PowerEdge R710 rack server, but take a peek inside and you’ll realise it’s something special. The server supports both 6500 and 7500 Xeons, giving you the choice of saving cash and opting for a two-socket system, or going for the full monty and loading it with up to four 7500s.

The R810 has a keen focus on businesses that don’t want the expense of 4P (that is, four-socket) servers but want their memory benefits. The server has 32 DIMM sockets and can support up to 512GB of memory, regardless of whether you use 6500s or 7500s.

Dell has achieved this by implementing its own FlexMemory Bridge technology. The R810 supports up to four processors, but if you populate two with 6500s, the spare sockets are fitted with special boards. These terminate the QPI links and extend the memory channels to the populated sockets.

The front panel is split into two sections, with one half providing unimpeded air flow through the chassis. Above it are six hot-swap SFF disk bays, alongside a LCD screen and control panel. This offers a keypad for setting network addresses, and you can view power consumption and temperatures.

Dell has done a fantastic design job internally, with the four processor sockets lined up across the centre of the chassis. Xeon X6550 modules sit in the middle two, while the outer sockets contain Dell’s FlexMemory boards. These eight-core processors have a 6.4GT/sec QPI speed, 18MB of shared L3 cache, and support for Intel’s Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost technologies. Spread out in front of them is a feast of memory, with our review system equipped with 32 4GB DDR3 DIMMs. The front eight slots are underneath the hard disk bay, which can be unlocked and slid forward.

Dell was first to add a bootable SD memory card for virtualisation fans, and you now get two of them on the same board. And you can keep an onboard copy of the boot media in case it fails. Note that Dell still only supports VMware’s ESXi and not Hyper-V.

Cooling is handled by a row of six fans fitted directly behind the processors. These are all hot-swappable, but you can also easily remove the entire fan assembly by releasing a clamp on each side. Power redundancy is looked after by a pair of 1,100W hot-plug supplies at the rear.

Even with such a high specification, power consumption was lower than we had expected. With Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise idling it drew 392W, and using SiSoft Sandra to blast all 32 logical cores it peaked at only 558W.

Quad TOE-enabled Gigabit ports come as standard and there’s plenty of room to expand, as the R810 has two half-height PCI Express slots in the centre with riser cards on each side, both accepting a pair of full-height, full-length cards. Dell’s PERC H700 RAID card uses its own dedicated slot and comes with 512MB of battery-protected cache plus support for all key RAID arrays.

Management features start with Dell’s unique Lifecycle Controller and its 1GB of NVRAM memory. You can boot the server directly from this controller, which loads Dell’s UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface).

The GUI provides access to OS deployment tools. The UEFI offers a wizard where you enter your details and leave the server to get on with installing your chosen OS. The controller also provides diagnostics, update tools and access to the server settings.

Dell’s iDRAC6 Enterprise management controller has a dedicated network port, plus vFlash media with a 1GB SD card. From its tidy web interface you can remotely monitor and control the server, view the status of critical components, and apply power capping.

Next up is Dell’s Management Console, which provides automated discovery, support for all SNMP-compliant devices and tools for inventory, system monitoring, OS deployment and firmware upgrades.

In all, Dell’s new PowerEdge R810 packs an incredible specification into its 2U chassis. It offers support for either 2P Xeon 6500 or 4P 7500 configurations, and combines these features with superb design and expansion potential.

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