Head-to-head · every figure from the vendor documents
Dell R640 vs HPE DL360 Gen12
A specification-by-specification comparison of the Dell PowerEdge R640 and the HPE ProLiant Compute DL360 Gen12, built from Dell’s and HPE’s own documents. None of the headline measures favour the R640; 5 favour the DL360 Gen12, and they share no processors.
Bottom line. DL360 Gen12 leads on virtualisation, databases and in-memory work, storage density, network throughput. Neither vendor publishes benchmarks for these machines, so every call here is made on what their documents state.
Each row is a figure both vendors publish. Bars show the split between the two; a badge marks the larger figure, which is not always the better buy — a shallower chassis or a lower power ceiling can matter more.
R6402
Processor sockets
DL360 Gen122
R64056
Cores, fully populated
Largest listed processor × its socket count
DL360 Gen12288Higher
R6401.53 TB
Memory ceiling
As each document states it
DL360 Gen128 TBHigher
R64018
Drive bays
DL360 Gen1220Higher
R640Up to 3
Accelerators
DL360 Gen12Up to 3
R6401,600 W
Largest power supply
DL360 Gen122,200 WHigher
R6401U Rack
Rack height
DL360 Gen121U Rack
R64025 GbE class
Fastest network option
DL360 Gen12400 GbE classHigher
02 — Verdict
Which one, and why
Drawn from the measures above and each model’s own data sheet. Neither vendor publishes benchmark results for these servers, so nothing here claims one is “faster”.
Choose the R640 if…
Slot count does not drop with the rack unit: the 2U members of this generation carry the same 24 DDR4 slots, so a memory-hungry workload costs no extra height here.
Choose the DL360 Gen12 if…
Cores, fully populated: 288 against 56 on the R640
Memory ceiling: 8 TB against 1.53 TB on the R640
Drive bays: 20 against 18 on the R640
Twenty E3.S NVMe bays in 1U — five front boxes that each take four E3.S or two U.3 SFF drives, and can be mixed.
03 — By workload
Where each one pulls ahead
Calls made on documented capacity only — cores, memory, bays, accelerators and network options — with the figures behind each one shown.
VirtualisationR640: 56 cores with 1.53 TB. DL360 Gen12: 288 cores with 8 TB.DL360 Gen12
Databases & in-memoryMemory ceiling 1.53 TB against 8 TB, across 24 and 32 DIMM slots.DL360 Gen12
Storage density18 bays in 1U against 20 in 1U.DL360 Gen12
AI & acceleration3 accelerators against 3 in the vendor documents.Line ball
Network throughputFastest card listed: 25 GbE class against 400 GbE class.DL360 Gen12
04 — Specifications
Side by side, differences first
Everything both documents state, grouped. The default view hides rows where the two machines are identical.
Processors
Every processor each vendor lists for the model, from its own document.
Bay counts are the maximum each document states, including rear and mid-chassis positions.
Specification
R640
DL360 Gen12
Maximum bays
18
20
Documented layouts
6
5
Bay sizes
2.5-inch · 3.5-inch
2.5-inch · E3.S · 3.5-inch
Boot devices
BOSS - HW RAID controller presenting M.2 SATA · IDSDM (2 x microSD, 16/32/64 GB) and/or vFlash (1 x 16 GB microSD), in a dedicated proprietary PCIe x1 slot at the rear using a USB 3.0 interface
HPE NS204i-u v2 480GB NVMe Hot Plug Boot Optimized Storage Device · HPE NS204i-u v2 960GB NVMe Hot Plug Boot Optimized Storage Device · HPE NS204i-u v2 960GB NVMe SED Hot Plug Boot Optimized Storage Device + 3 more
Storage controllers
12
14
Accelerators & I/O
Specification
R640
DL360 Gen12
OCP slots
0
2
Network cards listed
4
38
Power & platform
Specification
R640
DL360 Gen12
Power-supply options
11
5
Output range
495–1,600 W
800–2,200 W
Management
iDRAC9
HPE iLO 7
Chassis depthVendors measure depth differently — see each data sheet
Table 3: height 42.8 mm, width 482.0 mm, depth 808.5 mm, weight 21.9 kg, "Dimensions include bezel". The Appendix A figures instead give 718.89 mm bezel to die-casting rear wall, 737.19 mm bezel to rear wall PCIe area and 757.75 mm bezel to rear PSU handle (705.05 / 723.35 / 743.91 mm from the front plate). The guide does not reconcile the 808.5 mm figure with those measurements.
(8+2) SFF: 75.31 cm (29.65 in)
05 — The data
Processors, memory, bays and power
The same charts each data sheet carries, drawn to the same scale so the two ranges can be read against each other.
R640: processors by cores and TDP
Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family 70Bubble size = L3 cache · hover a bubble for the full SKU
DL360 Gen12: processors by cores and TDP
Xeon 6 E-core 7Xeon 6 P-core 26Bubble size = L3 cache · hover a bubble for the full SKU
R640: memory with every slot filled
DL360 Gen12: memory with every slot filled
R640: drive bays
Front panel
10 × 2.5" NVMe at the front — 10 bays in total.
SAS/SATANVMeSAS/SATA + NVMe
DL360 Gen12: drive bays
Front panel
8 × 2.5" SAS/SATA + NVMe at the front — 8 bays in total.
SAS/SATANVMeSAS/SATA + NVMe
R640: power supplies
AC−48 V DC
DL360 Gen12: power supplies
AC−48 V DC
07 — Questions
R640 vs DL360 Gen12, answered
Is the R640 or the DL360 Gen12 the faster server?
Neither document publishes benchmark results, so this page compares what they do state. The R640 lists 70 processors up to 28 cores at 205 W; the DL360 Gen12 lists 33 up to 144 cores at 350 W. Fully populated that is 56 cores against 288.
Which holds more memory?
The R640 has 24 DIMM slots and a stated ceiling of RDIMM 1.53 TB; LRDIMM 3 TB; NVDIMM 192 GB; PMem 6.14 TB. The DL360 Gen12 has 32 and 8.0 TB.
Which takes more drives?
R640: 18 bays across 6 documented layouts. DL360 Gen12: 20 across 5. Counts include rear and mid-chassis positions where the vendor documents them.
Can either take GPUs?
R640: up to 3 accelerators, 0 double-wide cards listed. DL360 Gen12: up to 3, 0 double-wide listed.
Do they share any processors?
No. The two documents list different processors, so a like-for-like processor build is not possible across these two.
Where these figures come from. R640: Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 Technical Guide (Rev. A10, August 2022) (Dell document). DL360 Gen12: HPE ProLiant Compute DL360 Gen12 QuickSpecs (Version 18 - 03-Aug-2026) (HPE document). Each claim on this page is derived from those documents, checked page by page on the two data sheets, and carries no pricing.