Dell PowerEdge R670 Topology
Here is the topology of the system:
A small item to note here is that Intel got serious with its cache in this generation with 336MB of L3 cache and 2MB of L2 cache per core in the Xeon 6767P processors. Previously, Intel used much smaller caches which is why Granite Rapids is a notable step forward. Typically we see the 64-core AMD EPYC Turin CPUs with only 256MB of L3 cache per CPU, albeit those have 12-channel memory.
Next, let us get to the management.
Dell PowerEdge R670 iDRAC Management
Dell uses iDRAC for its management and instead of using an industry-standard ASPEED AST2600 BMC, it has its own chip. Also, just something interesting is that instead of going directly to a major manufacturer, Dell is using Kingston eMMC on its module. Usually from a large server vendor we would expect Micron, Samsung, SK hynix, or Kioxia here like we see with the Micron DRAM package.
If you have been using iDRAC for years, you will be at home in the iDRAC 10 management interface. Of course, like all of these remote management suites, we are going to look at the GUI version, but the real goal is to use the APIs to orchestrate the management of fleets fo servers.
Dell has standard features like being able to drill down into the components.
You also have all of the telemetry data that is needed to spot potential issues occurring in systems as dell has lots of sensors onboard that iDRAC can pull data on.
We wanted to take a moment to look a bit more at the Dell PERC H975i that is mounted in the front of the server. You can see it in the Storage -> Controllers screen here.
By default, we did not see disks in the system behind the PERC H975i, so we had to configure virtual disks Luckily, iDRAC makes this very easy.
You select the disks and the array parameters. Then you are set.
The task executes in the background quickly once you set apply. If you remember the old days of hitting function keys or key combinations to get into a RAID controller interface so that you could setup a virtual disk, this is the exact opposite experience.
Once we were done setting up the disk, we could head into the remote media and remote console and setup Ubuntu on that array.
As a quick note, one great quality of life feature is this Boot Controls screen. You can pick where you want the system to boot too including the BIOS, or a virtual disk before the reboot is initiated. Like on the RAID controller side, if you remember hitting keys at boot to get into the BIOS, this makes that process obsolete. Not all vendors have this feature, but it is a great one.
Next, let us get to the performance of the system.
Dell PowerEdge R670 Performance
In terms of the performance, we have tested the Intel Xeon 6767P a number of times now given its popularity.
Just a fun aside, Dell’s CPU enumeration is very different from almost every other vendor in the industry. Dell does the first core on CPU 0, then the first on CPU 1, then continues to alternate between the two. To Dell shops, this makes sense. If you are accustomed to using other servers, it makes pinning cores in scripts a bit different. Luckily, we have Dell versions, so we can run our standard suite against these CPUs.
Our big question was whether the Intel Xeon 6767P with a 350W TDP could be cooled effectively in the PowerEdge R670. Here, the answer is a resounding yes. This is great performance, especially in a 1U server. Then again, this is a mainstream Dell PowerEdge so we would not expect anything less.
As a quick note, the dual Intel Xeon 6767P PowerEdge R670 configuration is on SPEC.org so if you use that in your RFPs, there is an official number.
Next, let us get to the power consumption.
The Dell honeycomb faceplate looks more photogenic to me than HP and any post-IBM Lenovo design.
In my opinion air-cooled dual-socket 1U servers never made much sense, because the fans are just too small. Now that power consumption has gone up, the sensible choice for 1U is liquid cooling.
Surprised to see it score so low in the spider chart for Capacity since you mention more than once that it can hit over 1PB in a single U. Seems with flash, High capacity and performance are one and the same in 2026.