Dell XE9685L vs Lenovo SR860 V4
A specification-by-specification comparison of the Dell PowerEdge XE9685L and the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR860 V4, built from Dell’s and Lenovo’s own documents. 1 headline measure favours the XE9685L, 4 favour the SR860 V4, and they share no processors.
Bottom line. SR860 V4 leads on virtualisation, databases and in-memory work, storage density. Neither vendor publishes benchmarks for these machines, so every call here is made on what their documents state.
The measures that decide it
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.
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 XE9685L if…
- Cores, fully populated: 384 against 344 on the SR860 V4
- The highest host core count in Dell’s 4U liquid-cooled pair: up to 192 cores per EPYC 9965, 384 cores across both sockets.
Choose the SR860 V4 if…
- Processor sockets: 4 against 2 on the XE9685L
- Memory ceiling: 16 TB against 3 TB on the XE9685L
- Drive bays: 56 against 8 on the XE9685L
- Fifty-six front drives in one chassis: 32 E3.S 1T NVMe bays over 24 × 2.5-inch SAS/SATA bays, or 48 × 2.5-inch with up to 24 of them NVMe.
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.
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.
| Specification | XE9685L | SR860 V4 |
|---|---|---|
| Processors listed | 5 | 7 |
| Most cores per processor | 192 | 86 |
| Highest processor TDP | 500 W | 350 W |
| Processor families | AMD EPYC 9005 | Xeon 6 P-core |
Memory
| Specification | XE9685L | SR860 V4 |
|---|---|---|
| DIMM slots | 24 | 64 |
| Slots per processor | 12 | 16 |
| Largest module listed | 128 GB | 256 GB |
| Memory types | RDIMM DDR5-6400 | RDIMM DDR5-6400 · 3DS RDIMM DDR5-6400 · CXL 2.0 memory module (E3.S 2T) |
Storage
Bay counts are the maximum each document states, including rear and mid-chassis positions.
| Specification | XE9685L | SR860 V4 |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum bays | 8 | 56 |
| Documented layouts | 1 | 4 |
| Bay sizes | 2.5-inch | 2.5-inch · E3.S |
| Boot devices | BOSS-N1 (2 x M.2 NVMe, HWRAID 1) | M.2 RAID B550i-2i SATA/NVMe Enablement Kit (internal, 2 x NVMe M.2, Broadcom SAS3808N RAID) · M.2 RAID B545i-2i SATA/NVMe Adapter (internal, 2 x SATA or NVMe M.2, Broadcom SAS3808N RAID) · M.2 B350i-2i NVMe Enablement Kit (internal, 2 x NVMe M.2, optional VROC RAID) + 2 more |
| Storage controllers | 1 | 15 |
Accelerators & I/O
| Specification | XE9685L | SR860 V4 |
|---|---|---|
| Double-wide cards listed | 0 | 1 |
| OCP slots | 1 | 2 |
| PCIe network slots | 12 | 18 |
| Network cards listed | 9 | 14 |
Power & platform
| Specification | XE9685L | SR860 V4 |
|---|---|---|
| Power-supply options | 1 | 10 |
| Output range | 3,000–3,000 W | 1,300–3,200 W |
| Input types | AC | AC · 277 VAC / HVDC · −48 V DC |
| Management | iDRAC9 | XClarity Controller 3 |
| Chassis depthVendors measure depth differently — see each data sheet | 1025.62 mm (40.37 in) without bezel / 1037.57 mm (40.82 in) with bezel | 906 mm (2.5-inch chassis) / 946 mm (E3.S chassis) |
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.
XE9685L: processors by cores and TDP
SR860 V4: processors by cores and TDP
XE9685L: memory with every slot filled
SR860 V4: memory with every slot filled
XE9685L: drive bays
Front panel
8 × 2.5" NVMe at the front — 8 bays in total.
SR860 V4: drive bays
Front panel
8 × 2.5" SAS/SATA at the front — 8 bays in total.
XE9685L: power supplies
SR860 V4: power supplies
XE9685L vs SR860 V4, answered
Is the XE9685L or the SR860 V4 the faster server?
Neither document publishes benchmark results, so this page compares what they do state. The XE9685L lists 5 processors up to 192 cores at 500 W; the SR860 V4 lists 7 up to 86 cores at 350 W. Fully populated that is 384 cores against 344.
Which holds more memory?
The XE9685L has 24 DIMM slots and a stated ceiling of 3 TB. The SR860 V4 has 64 and 16 TB.
Which takes more drives?
XE9685L: 8 bays across 1 documented layouts. SR860 V4: 56 across 4. Counts include rear and mid-chassis positions where the vendor documents them.
Can either take GPUs?
XE9685L: up to 8 accelerators, 0 double-wide cards listed. SR860 V4: up to 8, 1 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. XE9685L: Dell PowerEdge XE9685L Technical Guide (Rev. A03, June 2026) (Dell document). SR860 V4: Lenovo ThinkSystem SR860 V4 Server (September 7, 2026) (Lenovo document). Each claim on this page is derived from those documents, checked page by page on the two data sheets, and carries no pricing.
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