Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 Launched with up to 8x SSDs

If you are looking for a capable and compact server, the Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 may be one to check out. Featuring new Intel Xeon E-2100 processors with up to 6 cores and 12 threads (allegedly, soon 8 cores and 16 threads), the new processors are enormous upgrades over their quad-core Intel Xeon E3 predecessors. The Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 builds upon the PowerEdge R240 and brings a more robust platform with expanded storage options to the mix.

Dell EMC PowerEdge R340

Like the PowerEdge R240, the Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 is a 1U platform. Drive support is improved with either four 3.5″ hot-swap bays or 8x 2.5″ bays. One can use PERC cards and utilize these slots for either SATA or SAS3 duties. In contrast, the R240 is designed for SATA drives and the base configuration only has two 3.5″ cabled drive capacity without hot-swap. This is a big upgrade.

The Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 sports a single Intel Xeon E-2100 processor (or select other SKUs) and has four DDR4 ECC UDIMM slots in a 1U form factor. It is a close relative of the cost-optimized PowerEdge R240 platform we recently featured. The Intel Xeon E-2100 series chips are the most significant advancement in this market segment in almost a decade. They have high clock speeds and up to 6 cores/ 12 threads. For any web hosting company selling dedicated servers, upgrading to this new generation will provide a differentiated service compared to older offerings using quad-core Xeon E3 models.

For I/O expansion, there are two slots via risers both a x16 and x8 physical slot with x8 and x4 electrical connections. These cards can be used for BOSS boot drives, PERC RAID controllers, and higher-speed networking options. The PowerEdge R340 also upports an internal dedicated PERC slot. That allows the two PCIe slots to be used for a number of different cards and makes the PowerEdge R340 more flexible.

Power is provided via a single or dual 350W or redundant 550W power supplies. This is an upgrade over the PowerEdge R240’s 250W and 450W power supply options.

RAM capacity on the Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 is currently listed at 64GB in four DDR4 ECC UDIMMs. Current modules top out at 16GB each, for 64GB maximum memory in this server. In 2019 there will be 32GB ECC UDIMM modules in the market and Intel plans to support them on its Xeon E-2100 platform so we may see Dell release an update to double RAM capacity to 128GB next year. Do not count on that, but it is a possibility if the modules get qualified.

Final Words

Intel has had many generations of the Intel Xeon E3-1200 series processors as we covered in Looking back at Intel Xeon E3-1200 V1-V6 to the New Xeon E-2100. With the new Intel Xeon E-2100 series, Intel is delivering a 50% core count improvement for the first time in years. Patrick our Editor-in-Chief already requested a Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 to review. Unlike some of the other options on the market, we did not get a chance to test this one before its release. What makes the PowerEdge R340 extremely interesting is that this is the first time in several years where a lower-end Intel Xeon Platform can compete head-to-head in the market against the lower-end of Xeon Scalable. If you just need a low-memory footprint, high-frequency server with 8x 2.5″ bays, the PowerEdge R340 may be your solution.