Dell PowerEdge R540
Dell's 14th-generation two-socket 2U rack server built for affordable capacity: Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs up to 20 cores and 125 W, 16 DIMMs up to 1 TB, and up to 12 front plus 2 rear 3.5-inch drives. Suited to file, backup, video and general virtualization workloads that need lots of spinning disks rather than top CPU power.
Memory
- Slots
- 16 DDR4 DIMM slots: 10 on processor 1 (four channels with 2 DIMMs, two with 1), 6 on processor 2 (1 per channel)
- Types
- RDIMM (8, 16, 32 GB) and LRDIMM (64 GB), 1.2 V; RDIMMs and LRDIMMs cannot be mixed
- Speeds
- 2666, 2400, 2133 or 1866 MT/s depending on CPU and DIMMs (2666 MT/s at 1 or 2 DIMMs per channel)
- Max
- 1 TB (16 × 64 GB LRDIMM) with two CPUs; 512 GB with RDIMMs
- Max, one CPU
- 640 GB (10 × 64 GB LRDIMM) per the Technical Specifications table; the Technical Guide says 512 GB
- Recommended
- 768 GB max for performance-optimized configurations
- Modes
- Optimizer (independent channel), mirroring (6 DIMMs per processor), single- and multi-rank sparing
- RAS
- SDDC, mirroring, rank sparing, patrol/demand scrubbing, address parity, failed-DIMM isolation, thermal throttling
Storage
- Front bays (choice of chassis)
- 8 × 3.5" or 12 × 3.5" hot-plug SAS/SATA/nearline SAS (2.5" drives via hybrid carrier)
- Rear bays
- Optional 2 × 3.5" hot-plug SAS/SATA on the 12-drive chassis
- Max raw capacity
- 192 TB front + 32 TB rear (224 TB)
- Internal RAID/HBA
- PERC H750, H350, H740P, H730P, H330; HBA350i, HBA330 (internal PERC riser slot)
- Software RAID
- PERC S140 (SATA only, RAID 0/1/5, up to eight drives, Windows and Linux)
- External
- HBA355e, PERC H840, 12 Gb/s external SAS HBA
- Boot
- BOSS card: 2 × M.2 SATA SSDs, hardware RAID 1 (240 GB or 480 GB per the spec sheet; 120/240 GB in the Technical Specifications); PCIe 2.0 x2, low-profile/half-height card
- SD / vFlash
- IDSDM (2 × microSD, 16/32/64 GB) and/or vFlash (16 GB microSD) module
- Optical
- Optional slim SATA DVD-ROM or DVD+/-RW (8 × 3.5" chassis)
- Tape
- No internal tape; external RD1000 USB, LTO-5/6/7 SAS, 114X, TL1000/TL2000/TL4000, ML6000
Graphics
- Integrated
- Matrox G200eW3, 16 MB
- Max resolution
- 1920 × 1200 at 60 Hz
Expansion
- Slot 1
- LOM riser (mezzanine type, PCIe x8) for the 2-port network option
- Slot 2 (right riser, processor 1)
- PCIe 3.0 x16, full-height half-length or low-profile half-length
- Slot 3 (left riser, processor 2)
- PCIe 3.0 x16, low-profile half-length
- Butterfly riser (processor 1)
- Slot 2: PCIe 3.0 x16 full-height half-length; slot 3: PCIe 3.0 x8 low-profile half-length
- Slots 4-6
- Three half-height slots on the system board (Dell's single-CPU card tables use only slots 5 and 6)
- Internal
- Dedicated internal PERC riser slot (PCIe 3.0 x8 from processor 1)
- Layouts
- A: LOM riser + 3 low-profile slots; B: LOM riser + right riser + 2 rear drives; C: LOM riser + left + right risers + 2 rear drives; D: LOM riser + butterfly riser + 3 low-profile slots
- Total
- Up to 5 × PCIe 3.0 slots plus dedicated PERC and LOM slots
Networking
- Embedded
- 2 × 1 GbE LOM
- LOM riser (optional)
- 2 × 1 GbE (Broadcom BCM5720), or 2 × 10GBASE-T / 2 × 10 GbE SFP+ (Broadcom BCM57416)
- Max NIC cards
- Up to six (five PCIe cards and one OCP/LOM riser)
- Management
- Dedicated iDRAC9 RJ45 port
Power
- Hot-plug AC
- 495 W, 750 W or 1100 W 80 PLUS Platinum, 100–240 V; two PSUs, 1+1 redundant
- DC / mixed mode
- 750 W mixed-mode (240 V DC, China only); 1100 W mixed-mode HVDC (200–380 V DC, China and Japan only)
- Cabled
- 450 W AC Bronze single cabled PSU (listed as no longer offered in the 2022 Technical Specifications)
- Fans
- Up to six standard or high-performance cabled fans (five or six fitted depending on drive count and CPUs)
- Battery
- CR2032 3.0 V lithium coin cell
Ports
- Front
- 2 × USB 2.0, 1 × iDRAC Direct (micro-AB USB), 1 × VGA (the spec sheet lists 1 × USB 2.0)
- Rear
- 2 × USB 3.0, 1 × VGA, 1 × serial (DB-9, 16550), 1 × iDRAC9 network port, 2 × 1 GbE, system ID button, CMA/status indicator port
- Internal
- 1 × USB 3.0
Physical
- Form factor
- 2U rack
- Height
- 86.8 mm (3.41 in)
- Width
- 434 mm (482 mm across the rack ears)
- Depth
- 703.76 mm without bezel (front to PSU handle); the bezel adds 13.84 mm
- Weight (max)
- 25.4 kg (8 × 3.5"), 29.68 kg (12 × 3.5")
- Rails
- B6 ReadyRails sliding (drop-in), B13 stab-in/drop-in sliding (needed for Dell Titan racks), B4 ReadyRails static (also 2-post); optional CMA on sliding rails
- Operating temperature
- 10–35 °C standard; 5–40 °C continuous and -5–45 °C for up to 1% of hours in the expanded range
Management
- BMC
- iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller; Basic (default), Express or Enterprise licence
- At the server
- iDRAC Direct, optional Quick Sync 2 (BLE/Wi-Fi), optional LCD bezel
- APIs and consoles
- Redfish REST API; OpenManage Enterprise, Mobile, Power Manager; integrations for Microsoft System Center, VMware vCenter, BMC TrueSight, Red Hat Ansible
- Security
- TPM 1.2/2.0 or TCM 2.0 (optional), silicon root of trust, signed firmware, Secure Boot, System Lockdown, System Erase
Operating systems
- Supported
- Canonical Ubuntu Server LTS, Citrix Hypervisor (XenServer), Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, VMware ESXi
Processors
- Intel Xeon Gold 6126
- Intel Xeon Gold 6130
- Intel Xeon Gold 6138
- Intel Xeon Gold 6226
- Intel Xeon Gold 6222V
- Intel Xeon Gold 6209U
- Intel Xeon Gold 6230
- Intel Xeon Gold 5122
- Intel Xeon Gold 5118
- Intel Xeon Gold 5120
- Intel Xeon Gold 5117
- Intel Xeon Gold 5220
- Intel Xeon Gold 5218
- Intel Xeon Gold 5222
- Intel Xeon Gold 5215
- Intel Xeon Gold 5217
- Intel Xeon Gold 5218R
- Intel Xeon Silver 4112
- Intel Xeon Silver 4108
- Intel Xeon Silver 4110
- Intel Xeon Silver 4114
- Intel Xeon Silver 4116
- Intel Xeon Silver 4214
- Intel Xeon Silver 4214R
- Intel Xeon Silver 4215
- Intel Xeon Silver 4216
- Intel Xeon Silver 4208
- Intel Xeon Silver 4210
- Intel Xeon Silver 4210R
- Intel Xeon Bronze 3104
- Intel Xeon Bronze 3106
- Intel Xeon Bronze 3206R
- Intel Xeon Bronze 3204