Dell PowerEdge R530 Server

Unlike some of the other systems in Dell’s 13th generation server line up, the PowerEdge R530 only has one chassis option. The R530 supports hot-swap, which means that drives can be added or removed while the server is on. This single chassis option is the 8 Bay LFF.

8 Bay LFF Hot-swap

As stated above, the 8 Bay LFF chassis is the only option for the PowerEdge R530. This chassis supports a total of 8 3.5” SAS, SATA, or SSD drives. This system is a dual processor system and has an LGA2011-3 socket. There is a total of 12 DIMM slots with CPU 1 controlling 8 slots and CPU 2 controlling 4 slots. One of the things that set the R530 apart from other systems in the 13th generation is that there is a built in 4 x 1GbE NIC. There is option to use a daughter network cards, so the only option is to use PCIe NICs. There is also a removable card for iDRAC. The motherboard includes an one x1, one x4, one x8, and two x16 PCIe slots. All slots, except for the right two slots, accept half height PCIe cards. There is one x16 PCIe riser which consist of an x8 and an x16 PCIe slot. Each slot on the riser accepts full height cards.

The Dell PowerEdge R530 server can handle a maximum of 22 cores per processor. The R530 has two LGA2011-3 CPU sockets, which means that this system utilizes Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 or E5-2600 v4 series of processors. These two series of processors have support for virtualization.

DIMM Slots & Channels

The Dell PowerEdge R530 Server has a total of 12 DDR4 DIMM slots. There are 8 total memory channels. The memory channels by CPU 1 consist of 2 DIMM slots per channel. The channels by CPU 2 have 1 DIMM slot per channel.

Memory Types & Module Capacities

The R530 accepts DDR4 memory and can take either ECC Registered memory (RDIMM) or Load Reduced memory (LRDIMM). It is important to note that you cannot mix different types of memory. You can only use one type throughout all DIMM slots. The R530 accepts memory capacities of 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. With 64GB modules, you can only use this with load reduced memory. With this said, using load reduced memory allows you to reach an overall greater RAM capacity.

Max Configurations

With ECC Registered memory, a max size of 384GB can be achieved with a configuration of 24 32GB modules. With Load Reduced, you can reach a max of 768GB of RAM using 24 64GB modules.

Supported Memory Speeds

The R530 server accepts memory speeds of 2133MT/s and 2400MT/s. You can technically put in 2666MT/s, 2933MT/s or 3200MT/s, but these will clock down to 2400MT/s when using a E5-2600 v4 processor. When using an E5-2600 v3 processor, the fastest memory speed you can achieve is 2133MT/s.

The PowerEdge R530’s form factor only accepts a total of eight 3.5” drives. The R530 accepts SAS, SATA, and SSD drives. This server’s chassis does support hot-swap drives, meaning you can remove and/or add drives while the machine is powered on.

Supported Drives

NVMe is a fairly new technology in today’s world of computers. NVMe brings major speed advantages to your systems. NVMe drives are much faster than traditional drives. Unfortunately, the PowerEdge R530 doesn’t have much in terms of NVMe support. There is only really one option which is: PCIe. Neither U.2 or M.2 will work with this system.

PCIe NVMe

The only NVMe option for the R530 server is to use a PCIe NVMe drive. With this said, it isn’t the greatest solution. Firstly, you are restricted with which PCIe NVMe drives you can use. The drive you use must have Dell firmware. A normal OEM PCIe NVMe drive such an Intel or Samsung will not work. Even if you have a PCIe NVMe drive with Dell firmware, there are still a lot of limitations. You cannot use this drive to install an OS or to create a virtual machine. This option can really only be used as additional storage. One important thing to check is to make sure that the Slot disablement setting in the BIOS is enabled. If it is disabled, then the drive will not be recognized.

How Many Power Supplies does the R530 Take?

The Dell PowerEdge R530 Server can hold a maximum of two hot-swap power supplies. Because the power supplies are hot-swap, you can remove one from the system while the server is powered on. This will only work if one power supply remains plugged in.

Wattage Options

The R530 server has three power supply wattage options: 495W, 750W, and 1100W. All three options are great choices, but which one you choose depends on your application. Systems that have high end components generally require more power. Also, if the system is performing resource intensive tasks, then there will be more of a demand for power. In both cases, going with a 750W or 1100W PSU is the way to go.

Voltage

An important thing to pay attention to when buying a power supply for you R530, is the voltage. R530 power supplies can be either 110V or 220V. If you purchase a 220V power supply, but only have a 110V connection, then the system will not power on. Most outlets in American homes are equipped with 110V connections, while homes in Europe use 220V connections. 220V connections are also commonly seen in data centers. Before purchasing a power supply for your server, find out what connection you need, and then make sure the PSU you purchase supports that connection.

One thing that sets the Dell PowerEdge R530 apart from most servers in the 13th generation line up is it’s 4 x 1GbE RJ45 integrated network card. This system does not have a slot for network daughter card, so, the only way to expand the R530’s networking capabilities is by using PCIe network cards. There are both ethernet and fiber options. Since the built in NIC ports have 1 gigabit speeds, it is recommended that you go with an option with 10 gigabit speeds when picking out a PCIe network card for your R530.