Dell PowerEdge R730XD Server | 2X E5-2680 V3 2.50GHz = 24 Cores | 256GB | H730 | 24x 600GB 10K SAS (Renewed)

Review: Dell PowerEdge R730XD – Not What Was Listed, But Absolutely Worth ItDropped $600 all-in for this server, and here’s the bottom line: you’re not getting a museum piece—you’re getting a battle-hardened beast that’s still got plenty of fight left.What I Got:2x E5-2680 v3 CPUs — 24 cores, 48 threads. Plenty of muscle.256GB of ECC DDR4 RAM — yes, the real deal.Came with 12x 1.2TB 10K SAS drives instead of the listed 24x 600GB. Same total capacity, just fewer spindles. Sure, that means fewer caddies, but guess what? That saved me from having to buy 24 new drives. I only needed 12 more to max it out, and the ones I bought came with trays. Win-win.Drives had ~2 years of power-on time, clean SMART, no issues. No complaints there.Fully licensed iDRAC8 Enterprise, ready to remote in like a boss.Real-World Use:After BIOS and fan tuning, this thing idles at around 150W fully populated. That’s damn efficient for what’s inside.Noise? Yeah, it screams at boot—every Dell rackmount does. But once it settles down and you’ve tuned the fan curves, it’s shockingly well-behaved. Quiet enough for a garage or backroom without needing ear protection.H730 RAID controller plays nice. No complaints unless you're picky about JBOD.Final Call:This wasn’t a perfect match to the listing, but I’m not mad about it. Everything worked. Nothing was junk. If you’re expecting retail box condition, look elsewhere. If you know your way around server hardware and want serious power on the cheap, this thing delivers in spades.Would I buy it again? In a heartbeat.No regrets. Just raw horsepower, a little tuning, and a whole lot of uptime

The reconditioning was very good. Everything worked as it should. Vendor reach out to me to confirm the purchase and shipping date. I would recommend them

Received what was advertised. 24x 600gb SAS drives. Only needed to update 3 firmware modules. Minor learning curve on setting up the RAID. The web interface is better for that than the local connection. Web offers check boxes on AVAILABLE drives. Local simply lists the drives.Could have been 5 stars but unpacking is a PITA. Apparently they bag the server with an electro static (hopefully) bag then place another bag around that inside a form before using expanding foam. NOTE it SMELLS. I have expected to find dead mice.

Purchased this to run as a home server. Very happy with it so far.Used the available PCIe for a Quadro P2000, a SSD expansion card (JEYI Dual NVMe PCIe 4.0 X8), and a HBA controller (Broadcom SAS 3008) to add some external standard drives for even more storage.Only issues that I've had:- two bad RAM sticks that only showed up when I started actually putting load on the RAM.- this thing is a proper space heater (great when it's cold outside, somewhat annoying otherwise)

This server is quite loud, especially during boot. Beware if it will operate in the same room. Also, it seems to run quite slow for the CPU cores it has. Comes pre-installed with Windows Server, and no ethernet cables (but 2 power cables). No user manual to speak of, watch for drawings and other useful notes on the cover panel. Overall not too impressed with it.

I don't normally leave product reviews but I will make exception.in this case. The server came as described and was carefully shipped. I am new to servers and home labs so I was surprised at the size of it. But it was carefully packaged and came in excellent condition.It did have a faulty dimm but they worked with me to run diagnostics and figure out which part needed replacing. Overall I think it's great value for the the price. It's powerful system that I use for ML testing.

**Strong IT Rocks**I ordered a Dell PowerEdge R730xd from Strong IT and while the product experience had a few bumps, the way they handled everything was nothing short of outstanding.The first server that arrived was accidentally switched with mine. I reached out to Strong IT and their response was immediate and professional. They sincerely apologized and arranged a replacement right away. Unfortunately, the second unit arrived with shipping damage (not their fault), but again — they didn’t hesitate to make it right.They are now sending me another replacement, and through it all, their customer service has been absolutely top-tier. Friendly, responsive, and incredibly committed to making sure I was taken care of.You can tell a lot about a company not just when things go right, but how they respond when things go wrong — and Strong IT absolutely nailed it. I can say with total confidence that they care about their customers and stand by their products.200% satisfied with the customer service alone. I will absolutely buy from them again, and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for enterprise hardware and great support.If you’re on the fence about ordering from them, don’t be. You’ll be in good hands, no matter what. This kind of dedication to customer satisfaction is rare, and I’m grateful to have experienced it firsthand.

Good thing still works