Dell PowerEdge R820 CTO Rack Server

The Dell PowerEdge R820 is designed to excel at running a wide range of applications and virtualization environments for both mid-size and large enterprises, the Dell PowerEdge R820 rack server is a compute-intensive performance platform with highly scalable memory (up to 1.5TB) and impressive I/O capabilities to match. With four Intel Xeon E5 processors, and the ability to support dual RAID controllers, the R820 can readily handle very demanding, mission critical workloads, like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), data warehousing, e-commerce, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), databases, and data node High Performance Computing (HPC.)

Keep pace with the explosion of data in the virtual age with the flexible, powerful I/O and storage capabilities of the R820. Up to 16 internal hard drives and integrated PCIe Gen3-enabled expansion slots greatly increase your capacity, while optional hot-plug, front-access PCIe SSDs (up to 4) enable performance-enhancing, in-box storage tiering. Moreover, Dell Select Network Adapters, our flexible embedded NIC technology, let you choose the right network fabric to match your needs without using up a valuable PCIe slot.

Maximize your data center’s application capacity by expanding your virtual environment using the PowerEdge R820’s large memory footprint, I/O options, flexible fabric choices, and up to 32 cores in a four-processor configuration. Choose an industry-leading hypervisor and take advantage of our system management capability to manage both physical and virtual assets. The R820 can also help maximize your virtual machines’ uptime using redundant failsafe hypervisors on its Internal Dual SD Module. Finally, Dell’s Virtual Integrated System (VIS) solution lets you enable complex virtualization environments in just a few mouse clicks.

Tap the improved, state-of-the-art processing power of the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 and E5-4600 v2 product families and hyper-dense, 48-DIMM memory. Built using 22-nanometer process technology with up to twelve cores per processor, the Intel Xeon processor is designed for super-fast performance for compute-intensive tasks.

NOTE: To use the PCIe slots 1 ,2, 4, and 5 on the risers, processors 1 and 2 must be installed. The expansion-card slots are not hot-swappable.

Riser 1

GPUs can be installing Slots 1 or 6. If you install a GPU in Slot 1 you will need to change the PERC from a mini mono to an adapter PERC which will be installed in Riser 1 (Slot 2) or Riser 3 (Slots 7). The Default PERC type in Mini Mono, This style saves a PCIe slot.

Riser 2

When installing PCIe cards, be sure to check which slot holds Low Profile cards vs full Height cards. Please take note of the PCIe slot width (x8 or x16). For more information, you can look up the "Expansion Cards Installation Guidelines" in the Installation manuals below.

Riser 3

Not all cards can go into any PCIe slot. The GPU and the Storage Controller Adapters can only go into dedicated slots for cooling and power reasons. GPUs can only go into Slot 1 and 6 while Storage Controllers Adapters can only go into PCIe slot 7 and slot 2.

Default is Mini Mono Controllers unless a GPU or a 3/4 Length card is installed in Riser 1. If there is a GPU card installed in Riser 1 or a 3/4 Length card. Then the PERC much be an Adapter type Storage Controller and not a Mini Mono.

The R820 was only tested and validated with the Quadro 2000 for HPC use

• Higher wattage (>75W) or larger physical GPUs cannot be supported in the R820.
• Up to two GPU cards supported in the R820.
• Requires the two PCIe x16 slot configuration of the R820. Both Riser 1 and 3 are required.
• GPU card dimensions limited to ¾ length and single-wide cards.