The Dell PowerEdge R550 is a 2U server in Dell’s 15th generation line up of servers. This server builds upon the 14th generation’s R540. We will highlight the similarities and differences between each chassis option for the PowerEdge R550.

Bay Counts

There are three different bay counts and form factors to choose from for the PowerEdge R550. These options are: 8 Bay LFF, 8 Bay SFF, and 16 Bay SFF. The 8 Bay LFF chassis accepts up to eight 3.5” SAS/SATA drives. The 8 Bay SFF chassis accepts up to eight 2.5” SAS/SATA drives. Lastly, the 16 Bay SFF chassis accepts up to sixteen 2.5” SAS/SATA drives. None of R550 chassis options have an NVMe capable backplane.

Chassis Rear and PCIe Slots

In the rear of the PowerEdge R550, there are four low-profile PCIe slots, two 1GbE RJ45 Ethernet ports, a dedicated iDRAC port, a 2.0 and 3.0 USB port, an OCP card slot, VGA port, system ID button, a BOSS-S2 module, and two hot-swap power supply bays.

The Dell PowerEdge R550 is a dual processor system that accepts 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Only processors with 24 cores or lower can be installed. This means that the R550 supports a maximum of 48 CPU cores.

There are a handful of storage options to choose from for you PowerEdge R550 server. The form factor of your drives will be determined by what chassis you have. With an 8 Bay LFF system, you can install 3.5” drives. 2.5” drives can be installed as well, but you will need a 2.3” to 3.5” drive converter. The 8 Bay SFF and 16 Bay SFF chassis accepts 2.5” drives. Each chassis has the option to use two M.2 drives via the BOSS-S1 riser. The R450 server can use HDDs, SSDs, M.2s, and uSDs. Supported drive interfaces are SAS and SATA.

Supported Drives

A handful of 15th generation Dell servers have loads of NVMe support. Unfortunately, the Dell PowerEdge R550 is not one of those systems. With that said, the R550 is still a fantastic server. If NVMe is a requirement, then the R550 is not the server for you. For those of you who don’t need NVMe, the R550 can still be a great option. Whether it’s the right server for you, depends on your application.

Power Supply Overview

The Dell PowerEdge R550 has two hot-swap power supply bays on the rear of the system. Because this system supports hot-swap PSUs, you can remove/add a power supply while the system is running, as long as one unit remains within the system. There is a total of three power supply options to choose from: 600W Platinum mixed mode, 800W Platinum mixed mode, and 1100W -48VDC.

Wattages

As shown above, there are three wattages for the R450: 600W, 800W, and 1100W. These are all great options, but if you server requires a lot of power, then the 800W or 1100W are the way to go. For less power-intensive applications, the 600W works great.

Voltages

Each power supply has a voltage associated with it. Both the 600W and 800W options are mixed mode, meaning that they support a power input of 100-240VAC or 240VDC. The 1100W power supplies options only works with -48VDC to -60VDC power inputs.

In order to connect a device to the internet, it needs some type of networking card. Networking cards can manifest as a port that is integrated on the motherboard, or as a separate card. The Dell PowerEdge R550 can accept up to one OCP network card as well as PCIe network cards. PCIe cards must be low-profile to install it into the R550. There are also two 1GbE RJ45 ports built in the back of the server.