PowerEdge R730xd vs R740xd — Storage-Heavy 2U Servers
The “xd” suffix in Dell PowerEdge naming means extreme density — more drive bays than the base chassis, configured for storage-heavy roles: backup targets, object storage nodes (Ceph, MinIO), SDS tiers, video surveillance archives. The R730xd and R740xd each shipped in 12 LFF and 24 SFF variants plus optional mid-plane drives. Here is how they compare.
Specs that matter for storage roles
| Attribute | R730xd | R740xd |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | 13G | 14G |
| CPU | Xeon E5-2600 v3/v4 | Xeon Scalable Gen 1/2 |
| Max RAM | 1.5TB DDR4 | 3TB DDR4 |
| Front drive bays | 24 SFF / 12 LFF | 24 SFF / 12 LFF |
| Mid-plane drives | 4 SFF | 4 SFF (same) |
| Rear drive bays | 2 SFF | 2 SFF / 4 SFF |
| Max drives total | 26 SFF + 4 mid = 30 | 24 SFF + 4 mid + 4 rear = 32 |
| PERC options | H330 / H730 / H730P / H830 | H330 / H730P / H740P / HBA330 |
| NVMe-capable front bays | 0 native (SAS/SATA only front) | Up to 4 of front 24 NVMe-ready |
| EOSL | 30 June 2025 (ended) | 31 December 2028 |
Drive density — where the real work happens
Both xd variants accept 24 SFF (2.5″) or 12 LFF (3.5″) front configurations. Both support a 4-drive mid-plane cage (optional, factory-installed). The R740xd extends the rear with 4 SFF bays vs the R730xd’s 2 — that is 2 extra drives per chassis, relevant when you run parity-striped storage across all drives.
LFF (12 × 3.5″) is still the right call for cold-archive backup at USD 12–20 per TB landed. ICD stock of LFF HDDs: 01H3H, 028J2, 04KPG, 05WTN. SFF (24 × 2.5″) wins where IOPS matter — video ingest, hot backup, object gateway. SFF 10K SAS HDDs: 01M0D, 029V4, 03YT5, 05J9P.
NVMe — the one real win of 14G
R730xd has zero native NVMe support in the front tier. You can add a PCIe NVMe AIC card, but front-bay hot-swap NVMe was not part of the 13G design. R740xd supports up to 4 NVMe SFF in the front tier when specced with the right backplane, driven by PERC H740P or PCIe switch. That is a meaningful jump for hybrid NVMe+SAS storage tiers.
For full NVMe density (24 bays of NVMe), skip both and spec an R750 or R760 — the xd legacy wasn’t built for that.
Memory considerations
R730xd ceiling is 1.5TB with 64GB LRDIMM × 24. R740xd ceiling is 3TB with 128GB LRDIMM × 24. For storage servers, memory is page cache — more RAM = better hot-block hit ratio. On Ceph OSD nodes with 24 OSD drives, 512GB is a common floor, 1TB is typical. R730xd reaches either; R740xd doubles the ceiling.
R730xd DIMMs: DDR4 at 1866/2133/2400 (12C23, 25RV3, 708642-B21, 1VRGY, CG17D, D715X). R740xd DIMMs: DDR4 at 2666/2933 (1VRGY, CG17D, D715X, 370-ADVZ, 370-ADWK, 370-AEOI).
RAID / HBA choice for SDS
For Ceph, vSAN, GlusterFS, MinIO — pass-through HBA is the right call. On R730xd: HBA330 Mini Mono. On R740xd: HBA330 or HBA330 MMZ (mini-mono-zeroed). Hardware RAID (PERC H730P / H740P) is appropriate for classic RAID-6 backup targets or single-node databases, not for SDS layers.
PERC 9 family (R730xd): 18XYD, 2D1YW, 32G3R, 3P0R3. PERC 10/11 family (R740xd): 04M4C, 0878M, 0DXN6, 0N54P.
Power budget
24 spinning LFF drives at 10–12W each plus 2 CPUs at 150W each plus memory plus fans — full chassis draw under load is typically 550–750W on R730xd, 650–850W on R740xd (additional drives, higher-TDP CPUs available). Both chassis accept 1100W or 1600W redundant PSU. For 24 NVMe builds on R740xd, spec 1600W.
Stocked PSU PNs: 1JDDV, 1Y45R, 38GYJ (R730xd), 095HR5, 685W7, 95HR5 (R740xd-class).
OEM support reality
R730xd Dell ProSupport ended 30 June 2025. Any R730xd in production today is on extended TPM coverage (ICD Care+ or equivalent) or self-maintained with on-hand spares. R740xd Dell ProSupport runs through 31 December 2028 — the platform still has 3+ production years.
ICD recommendation
For backup targets and archive roles the R730xd is still delivering value at USD 1,200–2,200 refurb for a 12-LFF chassis. For anything tier-2 storage (SDS, Ceph, vSAN) or where you need NVMe acceleration, step up to R740xd (USD 2,800–4,500 refurb) or consider an R750 full-NVMe build.
ICD stock spans both platforms. Request a quote — include drive count, drive size, and workload and we’ll confirm the right chassis + drive mix within 4 business hours.
Storage-server-specific sizing
When specifying R730xd or R740xd as a storage target (backup, archive, object-storage node), three questions drive the build: capacity target, read-IOPS or write-IOPS target, and tier (hot / warm / cold). For pure cold archive at USD per TB landed minimum, a 12× 18TB LFF build on R740xd lands around USD 3,600 refurb chassis + USD 2,700 drive spend = USD 6,300 for 216TB raw. Same capacity on R730xd lands slightly cheaper at refurb pricing.
For warm-backup tier (Veeam repository with active restore workload), 24× SFF SAS SSD at 1.92TB per drive delivers 46TB raw at high random-read — the active-duplication workload completes 2–3× faster than LFF HDD equivalent. Appropriate on either platform.
Network positioning
Storage servers live or die by network. Both R730xd and R740xd accept OCP + PCIe NICs for dual-25 GbE or single/dual 100 GbE. R730xd is PCIe 3.0 — 100 GbE single-port saturates the PCIe lane. R740xd same story with slightly more lane headroom. For SDS deployments (Ceph, vSAN), 25 GbE dual-port is the practical sweet spot on both chassis; 100 GbE is worthwhile only on R750/R760.
ICD stocking depth
ICD stock: R730xd refurb chassis (with CPU + minimum RAM) in Cairo and Dubai; full-builds with drives on 3–7 day lead depending on drive mix. R740xd same model. LFF and SFF SAS drives in depth across all capacities from 900GB up to 20TB. NVMe SSDs in U.2 form factor across capacities. Open an RFQ with target capacity and workload — ICD engineering returns a validated spec within the working day.