Dell PowerEdge R770 Power Consumption
Our system was configured with two 1500W 80Plus Titanium power supplies. There are options ranging from 800W to 3.2kW. We actually got a warning with this configuration and trying to run on a single power supply because the potential power draw was more than 1.5kW. We got it just below that 1.5kW mark at maximum power consumption.
Our system was in performance mode, but we saw idle power consumption in the 500W+ range albeit with a full memory, CPU, and NVIDIA GPU configuration.
Digging into that a bit, just the CPUs and memory were reporting over 200W across them, and the NVIDAI H100 NVL was running over 60W at this point. That does not include the SSDs, other components, and cooling.
Of course, there are both configuration options from hardware choices to software that can lower this figure, but we thought it was interesting.
STH Server Spider Dell PowerEdge R770
In the second half of 2018, we introduced the STH Server Spider as a quick reference to where a server system’s aptitude lies. Our goal is to start giving a quick visual depiction of the types of parameters that a server is targeted at.
As a 2U single-node system it is not going to be the most dense option out there, but the PowerEdge R770 is more about checking a lot of boxes reasonably well rather than being able to do just one thing well. The one area it does not get high marks in is in capacity storage. We could not find a 3.5″ option on the server’s spec sheet. Perhaps the era is coming where we can remove that from our standard STH Server Spider after seven years.
Final Words
Whenever we test Dell PowerEdge systems, the engineering is great. What is also quite notable is that ten years ago Dell was not leaning heavily into open standards. Now, Dell is using things like the OCP NIC 3.0, DC-SCM, DC-HPM, and more from OCP. They are taking some of those base capabilities and building neat hardware on top of it.
When we review a PowerEdge like this, we are looking at only one configuration. That one configuration is only a small subset of what this server can do. Perhaps that is why the word that came to mind when testing the PowerEdge R770 was fluid because for every subsystem we tested, there were often six or more number of configuration options. Dell is clearly taking aim at the heart of the server market with the PowerEdge R770.
If only there was some fluid in there for cooling.
Indeed, I had assumed this was a review of one of the liquid-cooled models.
With all the dust the word “fluid” doesn’t come to mind.
Our hopes for a review of a liquid cooled server evaporated as we drank in the first paragraph. Like the bursting of a dam our hopes washed away, until we were somewhat buoyed by the review’s inclusion of E3.S SSDs instead of 2.5″ SSDs (but the option to use them, for those that have them, was refreshing).
So offering help, try: “adaptive”, “versatile” or “highly configurable”.