Dell
Dell PowerEdge T320 E5-2430 72GB RAM SAS Server Renewed
★★★★★
72GB RAM
72GB of ECC RAM and 24TB of hot-swap SAS storage give this renewed PowerEdge T320 the headroom to run file services, VM workloads, and backup jobs without breaking a sweat.
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Overview
Reliable Server Solution for Growing Businesses
The Dell PowerEdge T320 tower server delivers essential performance and reliability in a quiet, efficient design. Ideal for file and print, email, and other general-purpose applications, this server offers a balance of power, scalability, and value.
- Brand: Dell
- Model: PowerEdge T320
- CPU: Single Intel Xeon E5-2400 Series
- Memory: 72GB PC3-12800 ECC RAM (6 Slots DDR3)
- Hard Drives: 8 x 3TB 7200RPM SAS 3.5" LFF HDD
- RAID Controller: Dell PERC RAID
- Network: 2 x GigaBit NIC
- Power Supply: 2 x PSU
- Optical Drive: DVDRW Optical Drive
- Remote Access: iDRAC7
Key Features
Single Intel Xeon CPU E5-2400 Series
6 × slots DDR3 memory
Up to eight LFF Hot-Swappable Hard Drives 3.5" SAS or SATA or SSD
Dell PERC RAID
2 × GigaBit NIC
Pros & Cons
👍 Pros
- 72GB of DDR3 ECC RAM provides substantial working memory for virtualization and multi-service deployments, with headroom that most SMB workloads won't fully saturate.
- Eight hot-swap LFF SAS bays populated with 3TB drives deliver 24TB raw capacity — expandable to the full bay count with higher-density drives if needed.
- Dell PERC RAID controller enables hardware RAID with dedicated processing, offloading parity calculations from the CPU and protecting against drive failure without performance penalty.
- iDRAC7 remote management allows full out-of-band access for maintenance and recovery without physical presence at the machine.
- Dual redundant power supplies eliminate single-point-of-failure risk at the power delivery layer — critical for 24/7 uptime requirements.
👎 Cons
- The Intel Xeon E5-2430 is a single six-core processor from the Sandy Bridge-EN generation — adequate for light virtualization but will bottleneck under CPU-heavy workloads like SQL Server with heavy query loads or transcoding tasks.
- DDR3 memory means no upgrade path to newer RAM standards; the platform is effectively at end-of-scalability for memory bandwidth.
- Tower form factor is awkward in environments that later transition to rack infrastructure — no direct conversion path.
- As a renewed unit, drive health and RAID configuration should be validated immediately on receipt; original drive wear state is unknown.
- 10GbE networking is not available on this configuration — dual GigaBit NIC only, which limits throughput for high-demand NAS or iSCSI use cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
What workloads is the T320 well-suited for?
The T320 is purpose-built for small-to-medium business general-purpose workloads: file and print serving, email (Exchange or similar), light virtualization with Hyper-V or VMware Essentials, and on-premises backup targets. The 72GB ECC RAM configuration is sufficient for running 8–12 modest VMs simultaneously, and the eight LFF drive bays provide enough raw capacity for departmental NAS or backup-to-disk use cases.
What does ECC RAM mean in practice for this server?
ECC (Error-Correcting Code) RAM automatically detects and corrects single-bit memory errors in real time — errors that would silently corrupt data or cause crashes on non-ECC consumer hardware. For a server running 24/7 with business-critical data, ECC is non-negotiable, and the 72GB DDR3 PC3-12800 configuration here is registered ECC, appropriate for the Xeon E5-2400 platform.
Can the hard drives be replaced or upgraded while the server is running?
Yes. The eight 3.5" LFF bays are hot-swap capable, meaning you can pull and replace a failed drive without powering down the server. Combined with the Dell PERC RAID controller, you can rebuild a degraded RAID array on the fly — critical for maintaining uptime in production environments.
What is iDRAC7 and why does it matter?
iDRAC7 (Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller) is an out-of-band management interface that lets you access, monitor, reboot, and troubleshoot the server remotely — even when the OS is unresponsive or the machine is powered off. This is essential for remote administration without requiring physical access to the machine room.
Is this server suitable for rack mounting?
No — the T320 is a tower form factor, not a rack unit. It's designed for office environments or small server closets where rack infrastructure isn't available. If you need rack deployment, you'd need the Dell PowerEdge R320 or similar rack-mount equivalent.
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