The Dell PowerEdge R670 delivers exceptional power efficiency through 80 PLUS Titanium redundant PSUs (96%+ efficiency) and dynamic power capping, achieving 30-40% lower energy use than previous generations. Its thermal design combines dual-rotor counter-rotating fans and predictive airflow modeling, maintaining component temperatures 8-12°C below critical thresholds even at 95% workload. Wecent’s lab tests show R670 operates at 1.25 kW/hour under 80% load—20% more efficient than comparable HPE/Cisco servers.
What components drive R670’s power efficiency?
80 PLUS Titanium PSUs and Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs form the core. The dual 1400W PSUs use digital current sharing to maintain 94-96% efficiency across 20-100% loads—5% better than Gold PSUs. Pro Tip: Enable Dell’s OpenManage Power Center to auto-cap power at rack level, preventing circuit overloads during peak demands.
Technically, the R670 employs 12V-only power bus architecture, eliminating 3.3V/5V conversion losses common in older servers. Its CPUs use per-core Turbo Boost (up to 4.1GHz) that’s 18% more energy-aware than prior generations. For example, a 32-core workload consumes 230W here vs. 290W in R650—despite identical chipsets. But how does this translate to real infrastructure? A 42U rack with 18 R670s uses 22.5kW versus 31kW for equivalent Cisco C220 M6 systems.
How does thermal management adapt to workloads?
The dual-rotor fans adjust RPM from 3,000 to 15,000 in 0.1-second intervals, guided by 14 thermal sensors. Dell’s CFD-optimized airflow creates separate cooling zones for CPUs/NVMe drives, reducing cross-heating by 40% versus traditional designs.
Deep Dive: When ambient temps exceed 35°C, the system switches to asymmetric cooling mode—allocating 65% airflow to CPUs and 25% to GPUs. This prioritizes cooling for mission-critical components during heat waves. Pro Tip: Use Wecent’s customized perforated blanking panels to eliminate recirculation hotspots in server cabinet setups. A real-world case: An e-commerce client reduced data center AC costs by $18,000/year after replacing 40 older servers with R670s, maintaining 26°C inlet temps despite 30% higher compute density.
| Cooling Feature | R670 | HPE ProLiant DL360 |
|---|---|---|
| Max Airflow | 210 CFM | 185 CFM |
| Noise at 50% load | 55 dBA | 63 dBA |
| Watts/°C Cooling | 8.2 | 6.7 |
Does workload type affect efficiency metrics?
Yes—AI inference workloads cause 23% higher power draw than database processing. The R670’s PowerEdge Optimizer software dynamically allocates resources, cutting idle core consumption by 19%.
When handling mixed VMs, the server uses sub-NUMA clustering to group CPU cores near RAM modules, reducing data travel distances and associated power waste. For instance, a Kubernetes cluster saw 14% lower node energy use after migrating to R670s with NUMA-aware scheduling. Practically speaking, this allows Wecent clients to deploy 12% fewer nodes for same workloads compared to AMD EPYC-based alternatives.
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FAQs
Yes, but maximum CPU clock reduces by 18% to prevent throttling. Wecent advises supplemental in-rack cooling for sustained high-temp operations.
Is the R670 compatible with third-party GPUs?
Only NVIDIA A30/A2 and Intel Flex 170 GPUs are validated—others risk exceeding 300W thermal limits per slot.