Knowledge Center / Dell PowerEdge Explained

Dell PowerEdge Explained

PowerEdge is the most widely traded server family on the secondary market — which makes its generations and naming the first thing a used-hardware buyer should learn.

Knowledge pages are educational references, independent of sales inventory. Items without confirmed sourcing are reference-spec — quoted on demand.

How the naming works

Read a PowerEdge model like R750 in three characters: R = rack (T = tower, M/MX = modular); the first digit is the class (6 = mainstream 1U, 7 = mainstream 2U, 9 = high-end); the second digit marks the generation — 4x = 14th Gen, 5x = 15th Gen, 6x = 16th Gen. So an R640 is a 1U 14th-Gen machine and an R760 is a 2U 16th-Gen machine.

Generation map

GenerationKey modelsCPU platformMemoryYears
13th GenR630 / R730 / R730xdXeon E5-2600 v3/v4DDR4-2133/2400 RDIMM · 24 slots2014–2017
14th GenR640 / R740 / R740xdXeon Scalable 1st/2nd GenDDR4-2666/2933 · 24 slots2017–2021
15th GenR650 / R750Xeon Scalable 3rd Gen (Ice Lake)DDR4-3200 · 32 slots2021–2023
16th GenR660 / R760Xeon Scalable 4th/5th GenDDR5-4800/56002023–

Model guides

Used-buying risk notes

Memory for these platforms

Most Dell PowerEdge DDR4 platforms take exactly the modules we stock — see 32GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM availability or use the DDR4 compatibility table.

Need this hardware quoted — or a compatibility check?

Memory RFQ