Dell PowerEdge R960 Upgrade Guide
Maximize the performance and lifespan of your PowerEdge R960 (16G). Every upgrade option below is verified compatible.
Upgrade Storage
Moving from spinning disk to SSD or NVMe storage provides the largest single performance improvement — often 10-50x faster I/O. Consider NVMe for boot drives and high-IOPS workloads.

005052919 Dell Powerstore 1.92TB 2.5" SSD

005053076 Dell Powerstore 1.92TB 2.5" SSD

005053077 Dell Powerstore 1.92TB 2.5" SSD

0086DD Dell 1.92-TB 12G 2.5 SAS RI SSD W/G176J

00FYFW Dell 1.92-TB 12G 2.5 SAS RI SSD W/G176J

00J77H Dell 1.8-TB 12G 10K 2.5 SAS W/G176J
Upgrade Power & Cooling
This category provides verified compatible upgrade paths. ICD engineers validate every part for compatibility with your specific server model and workload requirements.

011JPY Dell R750XS High Performance Fan

02PVRX Dell Precision T5820 Cooling Fan

050G83 Dell Poweredge R340 R350 Server CPU Cooling Fan

08PMK Dell Titanium 2800W Rpsu 200-240V (50/60HZ)

08PXM2 Dell Precision T5820 Cooling Fan

090XRN Dell CPU Fan for Pe R710
Upgrade Controllers
Upgrading your RAID controller enables faster disk I/O, larger cache, and support for newer drive technologies. Essential when adding NVMe or SAS-4 drives.

03KWJN Dell PERC H965I Front RAID Controller

0GT7YG Dell PERC H965I Front RAID Controller

0TKK9K Dell Pe PERC H355 SAS RAID Controller

0VCV6T Dell Pe PERC H355 SAS RAID Controller

0WXXHY Dell PERC H965I Front RAID Controller

3KWJN Dell H965I 8GB 24GBPS Front PERC RAID Controller
Upgrade Processors
CPU upgrades deliver more cores and higher clock speeds. If your workload is CPU-bound (compilation, analytics, HPC), upgrading from 8-core to 16+ core processors provides significant throughput improvement.

338-CBXW Dell Intel Xeon Platinum 8452Y 2.0GHZ 36C/72T 300W

338-CHOV Dell Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 2.1GHZ 48C/96T 350W

338-CHSL Dell Intel Xeon Gold 5416S 2.0GHZ 16C/32T 150W DDR5-4400

338-CLVY Dell Intel Xeon Gold 5416S 2.0GHZ 16C/32T 150W DDR5-4400 (customer Install)

338-CLVZ Dell Intel Xeon Gold 6438Y+ 2.0GHZ 32C/64T 205W DDR5-4800

Dell Intel Xeon Gold 5415+ 8C/16T 2.9GHz 150W FCLGA4677 (Gen4 (Sapphire Rapids))
Upgrade Memory
Memory is the most impactful upgrade for virtualization and database workloads. Upgrading from 64GB to 128GB or 256GB can dramatically improve VM density and application response times.

AC239377 Dell 16GB 1Rx8 RDIMM DDR5-4800 PC5-38400R ECC Memory

AC239378 Dell 32GB 2Rx8 RDIMM DDR5-4800 PC5-38400R ECC Memory

AC239379 Dell 64GB 2Rx4 RDIMM DDR5-4800 PC5-38400R ECC Memory

AC448843 Dell 128GB 4Rx4 RDIMM DDR5-4800 PC5-38400R ECC Memory

AC449974 Dell 128GB 4Rx4 RDIMM DDR5-4800 PC5-38400R ECC Memory

Dell 128GB 2Rx8 RDIMM DDR5-4800 PC5-38400R ECC Memory
Upgrade Networking
Stepping up from 1GbE to 10GbE or 25GbE eliminates network bottlenecks for VM migration, iSCSI storage traffic, and backup windows. Most modern workloads benefit from at least 10GbE.

00M95 Dell Intel XXV710 DA2 2 Port 25GB Ethernet Network Adapter

06WMMV Dell Broadcom 57414 25GB DUAL-PORT Network Card

20NJD Mellanox CX4121C 25GBE Dual Port Low Profile Network Card

24GFD Dell/Broadcom 57414 Dual Port 25GB SFP PCIe NIC (low Profile)

275YF Dell Broadcom 57414 Dual Port 10/25GBE SFP28 Adapter, PCIe Low Profile & Full Height

406-BBLC Dell Mellanox CONNECTX-4 Lx Dual Port 25GBE SFP28 Network Adapter Low Profile
More PowerEdge R960 Resources
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