The Dell PowerEdge R630 is a powerful and versatile 1U rack server that was launched in September 2014. Now over 8 years old, the R630 still provides excellent performance and reliability for many businesses and data centers. In this comprehensive 2023 review, we‘ll cover everything you need to know about the Dell R630, from specs and hardware to pricing, support, and ideal use cases.
Overview and Background
The Dell PowerEdge R630 was designed to be a direct upgrade over the previous generation R620 server. It packs significant improvements in processing power, memory speed and capacity, storage, and bandwidth. Key updates include:
- Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors with up to 22 cores per CPU
- 50% more DDR4 memory channels (24 DIMMs) supporting up to 1.5TB
- More PCIe 3.0 slots for flexibility
- Support for 10GbE and faster storage drives
Dell positions the R630 as a versatile platform for demanding workloads like virtualization, databases, software-defined storage, collaboration tools, and high performance computing. It competes directly with servers like the HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9.
Quick Facts:
- Release Date: September 15, 2014
- Original List Price: $2,829+
- Total Units Sold: Over 488,000
- End of Support: September 30, 2024
Next, let‘s do a deeper dive on the hardware specifications and capabilities.
Dell R630 Specifications
The R630 shines when it comes to configuration flexibility. It uses the Intel C612 chipset and supports a wide variety of the latest components:
Processors
- Single or dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 CPUs
- Up to 22 cores and 44 threads per processor
- 130W TDP
- Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
Memory
- 24x DDR4 DIMM slots
- Speeds up to 2400MT/s
- 1.5TB max supported RAM
- Advanced ECC for reliability
Storage Bays
- 8 x 2.5" drives (SAS, SATA, SSD)
- Optional DVD-ROM drive
RAID
- Dell PERC H730 Controller
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50
- Up to 8 SAS drives supported
Expansion
- Up to 3x PCIe Gen3 slots
- 2x 1GbE onboard + optional 10GbE
Power Supplies
- Dual hot-plug PSUs (495W, 750W, 1100W)
- 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency
As you can see, the R630 provides a lot of flexibility to customize the server for your specific use case requirements. And it packs excellent single-thread and multi-thread performance with support for up to 44 CPU cores.
Chassis Options: 8 Bay vs 10 Bay
The R630 comes in both 8 bay and 10 bay chassis configurations:
8 Bay Model
- 2.5" drive bays
- More I/O ports on front panel
- 2x USB
- 1x VGA
- SD card slot
- Tool-less access to components
10 Bay Model
- 2.5" drive bays
- Only 1x USB port on front
- Extra networking modules supported
The main tradeoff is storage capacity vs front panel connectivity. The 8 bay chassis leaves room for convenient USB ports, video out, and an SD card reader. The 10 bay squeezes in extra storage, but leaves less room for front panel IO.
Inside, both models utilize tool-less access to critical components like fans, power supplies, and the RAID controller. This makes serviceability much easier compared to screw-based designs.
Our recommendation: the 10 bay R630 provides maximum storage capacity in a compact 1U form factor. And you still get USB ports on the rear panel. The average business will benefit more from extra drive bays over front panel convenience.
Processing Power
The dual Intel Xeon Scalable CPU design is where the R630 really shines. Each LGA 2011-v3 socket supports high core count Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors. Key benefits:
- Up to 44 cores / 88 threads per server
- 22nm manufacturing process
- 130W TDP for excellent thermals
- Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
With two top-of-the-line 22 core Xeon CPUs, you can achieve incredible multi-threaded performance for virtualized workloads. Plus strong single thread speed with Turbo boost.
The R630 also supports Intel‘s advanced RAS (reliability, accessibility, serviceability) features for mission critical usage. This includes MCA recovery, memory mirroring, fatal error handling, and more.
For most business applications, we recommend a dual CPU configuration for optimal performance. Just ensure your operating system and software licenses support multiprocessor servers.
Memory: Up to 1.5TB RAM
Another major upgrade over the R620 is memory capacity and bandwidth. The R630 supports Intel‘s newest DDR4 ECC RDIMM modules with speeds up to 2400MT/s.
With 24 DIMM slots, you can install up to 1.5TB using 64GB modules. This massively improves support for memory intensive applications like virtualization and big data analytics.
Other memory features include Advanced ECC with multi-bit error protection and memory mirroring for redundancy. This prevents downtime from memory failures – a critical need for enterprise servers.
Overall, the R630 sets a new standard for memory capacity and reliability compared to past Dell servers. We recommend maxing out the RAM for virtualization usage.
Storage: Flexible Drive Options
The PowerEdge R630 supports a wide range of storage drive types, including:
- 2.5" SATA SSDs
- 2.5" SAS HDDs
- PCIe NVMe SSD add-in cards
With support for up to 10 hot-swappable small form factor bays, you can install plenty of very fast flash storage. Dell offers redundancy features like hot spares and drive rebuilding as well.
The R630 ships with a hardware RAID controller – the Dell PERC H730 Mini. This supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60 for the internal drive bays. You also get software RAID capabilities.
For the operating system, we recommend at least a small 200GB SATA SSD mirrored (RAID 1) for redundancy. Then add larger capacity SATA or SAS drives in RAID 5/6 groups for shared storage pools.
PCIe NVMe drives provide blazing speeds upwards of 3.5GB/sec sequential read. Great for applications needing low latency like databases.
Networking and Expansion
Network connectivity is essential on any server. The baseline R630 ships with two 1GbE LAN ports using Intel i350 controllers.
You can add in additional network cards like 10GbE adapters or faster Fibre Channel HBAs. There is room to install up to three low profile PCIe expansion cards.
Other external ports include:
- 2x USB 3.0
- 1x VGA
- Serial connector
- IDSDM slot
Plenty of flexibility to add monitors, external storage, and other peripherals as necessary.
Overall the networking and expansion options are very solid for a 1U chassis. Add 10GbE or faster if your workloads demand high bandwidth.
Supported Operating Systems
The PowerEdge R630 supports most modern server operating systems including:
- Windows Server (2012 R2 or newer)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- VMware ESXi
- Citrix XenServer
OS support includes both bare metal installation and virtualization. For example, you can run ESXi with guest VMs, or install Windows Server directly onto the hardware.
Driver support for the R630 is still included with the newest OS versions as well. So you won‘t have issues upgrading to Windows Server 2022 for instance.
Check the Dell R630 specs document for full OS compatibility. Overall you get excellent platform support.
Management Software and Tools
Managing hardware and OS deployments is crucial for admin productivity. The R630 ships with Dell‘s excellent embedded management tools:
IDRAC 8
- Remote power cycling
- Hardware monitoring
- Firmware updates
- OS deployment
OpenManage
- Server configuration
- Monitoring
- Updating drivers
These programs allow full control over the Dell hardware without requiring physical access to the server. You can deploy OS images, monitor temps and fan speeds, update firmware, and restart the server if needed.
For larger environments, Dell OpenManage integrates tightly with tools like Microsoft System Center to enable easy management of many systems. Overall the R630 ships with everything you need for smooth remote administration.
And that wraps up the hardware and software capabilities of the Dell PowerEdge R630. Next let‘s discuss real world performance and ideal usage scenarios.
Benchmarks and Performance
Independent testing shows the dual Xeon E5-2600 v4 CPUs provide excellent improvements over previous Dell servers:
SpecCPU2017 Benchmark
- 2x 2650 v4 CPUs = 517 baseline score
- 2x 2690 v3 CPUs = 400 baseline score (prior gen)
So you‘re looking at over 25% faster processing power on the R630 thanks to newer Intel chips.
The extra DDR4 memory channels also contribute to big performance gains in memory bandwidth sensitive tests like Stream Triad:
Stream Triad Throughput
- R630 = 198 GB/s
- R620 = 136 GB/s
Again, the R630 takes the lead with over 45% higher memory bandwidth thanks to speedy DDR4 RAM.
For storage, switching to all flash NVMe drives can provide nearly 6X higher IOPS and 36X better latency versus 15K HDDs:
||Disk IOPS|Read Latency|Write Latency|
|-|:-:|:-:|:-:|
|8 x 1.6TB SAS HDDs|5,600|4.45 ms|3.47 ms
|8 x 960GB NVMe SSDs|110,000|0.086 ms|0.132 ms|
So if your workloads are held back by storage speed, upgrading to NVMe flash provides enormous gains.
Where does this benchmark-leading performance shine? Three major use cases:
- Virtualization and VDI – Support 100s of VMs with high cores, memory capacity, and fast storage
- Database Servers – Low latency for transactional systems; high bandwidth for analytics
- Software-Defined Storage – Turn flash drives into very fast shared storage
- Big Data Analytics – Collect, process, and query massive datasets rapidly
- High Performance Computing – Model complex simulations using many cores
- Web Servers – Support heavy user loads; launch new web apps faster
The R630 is versatile enough to excel at all these demanding workloads. No wonder it remains popular years later.
And if you outgrow its capabilities, the R630 provides an easy migration path to newer PowerEdge servers like the R740xd. You can migrate drives and even memory DIMMs without replacing everything. This provides great investment protection.
Public Reception and Reviews
The R630 maintained Dell‘s strong reputation among IT professionals and business buyers upon its launch. Reviewers praised the balanced blend of strong single thread and multi-thread performance. The no-nonsense enterprise design and wide OS support also appealed to administrators.
Pros commonly highlighted by experts included:
Praise
- Simple manageability features
- Comprehensive security capabilities
- Large memory capacity
- Excellent compute density as a 1U chassis
Complaints
- Higher cost than previous series
- Improved GPU support desired
Considering the R630‘s target market of large enterprises, the power and reliability clearly outweighed higher pricing. GPU acceleration wasn‘t as vital several years back either.
Today you can find many R630 units still going strong in data centers and server rooms. WaitThe R630 maintained Dell‘s strong reputation among IT professionals and business buyers upon its launch. Reviewers praised the balanced blend of strong single thread and multi-thread performance. The no-nonsense enterprise design and wide OS support also appealed to administrators.
Pros commonly highlighted by experts included:
- Simple manageability features
- Comprehensive security capabilities
- Large memory capacity
- Excellent compute density as a 1U chassis
Complaints focused primarily on:
- Higher cost than previous series
- Improved GPU support desired
Considering the R630‘s target market of large enterprises, the power and reliability clearly outweighed higher pricing. GPU acceleration wasn‘t as vital several years back either.
Today you can find many R630 units still going strong in data centers and server rooms. Waiting to upgrade until EOL helps maximize ROI on hardware investments.
Overall the R630 lived up to Dell‘s excellent reputation for building reliable, high performance servers. And many businesses continue relying on these workhorse servers for mission critical applications.
Finding the Best Dell R630 Prices
As enterprise server hardware ages, it becomes more affordable for small businesses. Here are the best places to buy a refurbished R630 today:
- TechBuyer – $475+
- PC Server and Parts – From $382
- Amazon Renewed – $535+
When buying used, prioritize sellers that include a warranty, test components before shipping, and bundle in the operating system. This saves headaches down the road.
Target at least an E5-2640 v4 CPU, 32GB RAM, and a small mirrored SSD pair to start. This balances price versus performance nicely.
Keep in mind used pricing depends heavily on exact specs. Units with maxed out processors and RAM understandably cost over $1,000. Shop accordingly based on your workload demands.
Final Recommendation
The Dell PowerEdge R630 still delivers excellent bang for the buck for SMBs and enterprises alike. It packs serious horsepower and customization potential at a reasonable price point.
If you need a reliable server platform that can grow with your technical demands well into the future, the R630 deserves strong consideration. Features like hot swappable drives, redundant PSUs, advanced RAID protections, and extensive remote management help minimize downtime as well.
Just be sure to factor in licensing costs if you don‘t have existing Windows or Linux licenses. Support and warranty coverage is also important for mission critical workloads – either DIY or through a refurbishing company.
All in all, I wholeheartedly recommend the PowerEdge R630 for most business server workloads. It has proven its mettle across tens of thousands of deployments. And continues delivering fantastic versatility and value every day.
