Dell’s R960 is a 4U, four-socket server for 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable. It shares the 2U R860’s processors and 64 DDR5 slots but adds room for double-wide GPUs, twelve Gen5 slots, 32 front bays and four supplies. We map each of those — five riser layouts, seven storage fronts, 2+2 power — and the thermal and environmental rules attached to them.
Our read of Dell’s documentation: where the R960 is strong, and the limits worth knowing before you spec one.
Strengths
+Four sockets with room for accelerators: the GPU riser layout takes four full-length double-wide cards, which the 2U R860 cannot.
+Up to twelve PCIe Gen5 x16 slots with four processors — half as many again as the R860 — for fabric, storage and network adapters.
+Thirty-two front 2.5-inch bays in a dual-controller layout, or 24 NVMe, or 16 E3.S Gen5 alongside eight SAS4/SATA.
+Four supplies in 2+2 redundancy, with a −48 to −60 V DC model rated 1100 W among the options for DC-powered rooms.
+On air, even the 330 W and 350 W processors are rated for 35°C inlet in every storage layout, and the lower-power parts reach 40–45°C in the all-SAS 8-, 16- and 32-bay layouts.
Watch-outs
!Two processors leave just two usable PCIe slots (3 and 11 in riser configuration 0-2); the scale-out, maximum-I/O and GPU layouts all need four.
!No riser configuration allows rear drives, so apart from the BOSS-N1 boot module every drive has to sit in the front bays.
!Double-wide GPUs are ruled out with the 32-bay SAS and the 16 + 8 NVMe fronts, need the GPU air shroud, and are barred entirely from ASHRAE A3 and A4 rooms.
!At 4U and up to 60.2 kg it takes twice the rack height of the R860 for the same processor and memory ceiling.
!Using slots 4 and 9 brings a 35°C limit with seven of the ten processors, and on air those two slots are unsupported in A3 and A4.
Processors10 SKUs
Cores / CPU8–60
DIMM slots64
Drive layouts7
Max bays32
GPUsup to 4
PSU options6 · to 2,800 W
02 — Processors
10 supported processors, mapped
The same ten 4th Gen Xeon Scalable H-series processors as the R860, from the 8-core, 3.7 GHz Gold 6434H to the 60-core Platinum 8490H. The chart places each by cores and TDP. Dell’s thermal tables are also more generous here: the storage layout constrains the processor choice far less than in the 2U sibling.
Processor landscape — cores × TDP
10 SKUs · 1 family
4th Gen Xeon Scalable 10Bubble size = L3 cache · hover a bubble for the full SKU
Processor explorer
filter · sort · compare
Processor
Cores / threads
Base
L3 cache
TDP
W / core
Memory
Intel Xeon Platinum 8490H
60 / 120
1.9 GHz
113 MB
350 W
5.8
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8468H
48 / 96
2.1 GHz
105 MB
330 W
6.9
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8460H
40 / 80
2.2 GHz
105 MB
330 W
8.3
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8454H
32 / 64
2.1 GHz
83 MB
270 W
8.4
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Gold 6448H
32 / 64
2.4 GHz
60 MB
250 W
7.8
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8450H
28 / 56
2 GHz
75 MB
250 W
8.9
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Gold 6418H
24 / 48
2.1 GHz
60 MB
185 W
7.7
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Gold 6416H
18 / 36
2.2 GHz
45 MB
165 W
9.2
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8444H
16 / 32
2.9 GHz
45 MB
270 W
16.9
DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Gold 6434H
8 / 16
3.7 GHz
23 MB
195 W
24.4
DDR5-4800
Dell does not recommend mixing processor models when all four sockets are populated.
96 GB RDIMMs are limited to the Platinum 8400H processors.
Processors up to 185 W use the standard heat sink; 195 W and above use the L-type.
On air, ASHRAE A3 rooms exclude processors of 330 W or more, and A4 rooms those of 250 W or more.
03 — Memory
64 DIMM slots, 16 per processor
Sixty-four DDR5 RDIMM slots, sixteen per processor, give 16 TB when filled with 256 GB modules. The processors, not the module label, set the speed: every DIMM, 5600-rated parts included, runs at 4800 MT/s alone on its channel and at 4400 MT/s when a second shares it.
Capacity with every slot filled
by DIMM size
Operating speed
per Dell memory tables
Processor
1 DIMM / channel
2 DIMMs / channel
4th Gen Xeon Scalable (H-series)
4800 MT/s
4400 MT/s
Unlike the R860 guide, the R960 guide places no one-per-channel limit on 256 GB RDIMMs, and its thermal matrix rates them for 35°C in every layout.
96 GB modules need 8 or 16 DIMMs per processor; on air they are rated for 40°C in the 32-, 16- and 8-bay SAS layouts and 35°C elsewhere.
Empty slots take DIMM blanks.
ASHRAE A3 and A4 rooms exclude 128 GB and larger RDIMMs.
04 — Storage
7 drive-bay layouts, up to 32 bays
Seven layouts, all at the front: 8 × 2.5-inch SAS/SATA, 16 or 32 × 2.5-inch SAS4/SATA, 24 × 2.5-inch NVMe, a 16 + 8 SAS/NVMe split, and two EDSFF E3.S Gen5 options. None of the five riser configurations allows rear drives, so every drive sits behind the front bezel.
Headline layouts
front panel view
Front panel
The bay-count maximum: 32 SAS4/SATA bays in Dell’s dual-controller Smart Flow layout.
SAS/SATANVMeSAS/SATA + NVMe
Controllers & boot
S160 — Software RAID. Entry tier (OS RAID / S160)
PERC H355 — RAID. Value tier, PERC 11 (replaces H345 from Dec 2021; H345 deprecated Jan 2022)
HBA355i — HBA. Value tier, HBA 11 internal
HBA355e — HBA. Value tier, HBA 11 external
HBA465i — HBA. Value tier, HBA 12 internal (Table 6 prints 'H465 (internal/external)'; Table 2 prints HBA465i)
HBA465e — HBA. Value tier, HBA 12 external
PERC H755 — RAID. Value Performance tier, PERC 11 (front PERC)
PERC H965i — RAID. Premium Performance tier, PERC 12 (Avenger), front PERC
BOSS-N1 — boot
All 9 controllers and 1 boot options
PERC H965e — RAID. Premium Performance tier, PERC 12 external
On the Universal backplane, SAS/SATA drives get hardware RAID while NVMe drives are direct-attached.
Dell does not support Tri-Mode on PowerEdge, meaning SAS, SATA and NVMe drives cannot all be mixed behind one controller.
Dell’s drive table lists E3.S at 3.84 and 7.68 TB and 10K SAS disks from 600 GB to 2.4 TB.
BOSS-N1 and 2.5-inch NVMe are unsupported in ASHRAE A3 and A4, as are PCIe slots 4 and 9 on air-cooled systems.
Every documented layout
7 with drive bays
2.5-inch3.5-inchEDSFF (E1.S / E3.S)
05 — Accelerators & I/O
GPUs, PCIe and networking
Double-wide cards need riser configuration 3, Dell’s GPU layout and the only one with double-wide slots: four full-length Gen5 x16 positions (3, 6, 8 and 11) alongside single-wide and low-profile slots. Any installed GPU also needs the GPU air shroud. Dell’s option tables name no specific cards; one acoustic test system carries two NVIDIA A16s at 250 W, in slots 2 and 10. Up to four double-wide cards at 400 W per the feature table; the thermal matrix row covers 300 W double-width cards at 35°C.
Double-wide GPU (model not named in guide; feature table: 'Up to four double wide 400 W'; thermal table row: 'Double width (300 W)')
double-wide
up to 4
I/O topology
80 lanes per CPU
Each processor brings 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes. Dell lists five riser configurations, from a two-processor entry layout with two usable slots to a four-processor layout with twelve.
Network adapters Dell lists
15 options
Adapter
Ports
Form
Broadcom 4 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0
4 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 2 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0
2 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 4 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0
4 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 2 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0
2 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 4 x 10 GbE BT OCP 3.0
4 × 10GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 2 x 10 GbE SFP+ OCP 3.0
2 × 10GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 4 x 1 GbE BT OCP 3.0
4 × 1GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 4 x 1 GbE SFP+ OCP 3.0 (as printed)
4 × 1GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 2 x 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
2 × 100GbE
OCP 3.0
Mellanox 2 x 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
2 × 100GbE
OCP 3.0
Mellanox 2 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0
2 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 4 x 1 GbE SFP+ OCP 3.0 (as printed; duplicate row in Table 10)
4 × 1GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 4 x 10 GbE SFP+ OCP 3.0
4 × 10GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 2 x 10 GbE SFP+ OCP 3.0
2 × 10GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 5720 (BCM5720) 2 x 1 GbE LOM (optional)
2 × 1GbE
LOM
Riser configuration 0-1 gives four Gen5 x16 slots with four processors; 0-2 leaves only slots 3 and 11 active with two.
The scale-out configuration provides eight full-height slots; maximum I/O adds two low-profile slots (4 and 9) and two more full-height ones.
OCP cards draw 15–35 W; in A3/A4 rooms they need 85°C-rated active optical cables, and cards above cooling tier 5 are excluded (above tier 4 for liquid-cooled systems in A4).
06 — Power & cooling
6 power supplies, 1,100–2,800 W
Up to four hot-plug supplies in 2+2 redundancy. AC options run from 1100 W to 2800 W across the 60 mm and 86 mm form factors, and a 60 mm 1100 W unit takes −48 to −60 V DC input.
AC−48 V DC
The supplies work as two sets: if the sets differ at iDRAC boot, the higher-capacity set is enabled, and a set added later must match the first.
Low-line (100–120 V AC) ratings: 1400 W for the 2400 W unit, 1050 W each for the 1100 W and 1400 W units, and none for the 1800 W and 2800 W units.
The −48 V DC supply draws 27 A, dissipates 4267 BTU/hr, reaches 92% efficiency at half load and uses a LOTES APOW0097 cord.
All four supplies must be fitted for ASHRAE A3 or A4 operation.
Dell’s loudest test system — four 350 W processors, 64 DIMMs, 32 drives and four 2800 W supplies — measured 77 dB(A) at maximum load and 35°C.
07 — Management, security & OS
Run it, secure it, choose the OS
Management
iDRAC9 with iDRAC Direct (front micro-AB USB)
iDRAC RESTful API with Redfish
iDRAC Service Module
Quick Sync 2 wireless module
OpenManage Enterprise with Power Manager, Service and Update Manager plug-ins
CloudIQ for PowerEdge
OpenManage integrations for VMware vCenter, Microsoft System Center, Windows Admin Center and ServiceNow
The R960 sits above the 2U R860, which shares its processors and memory; the GPU-dense R760xa and XE8640 are two-socket accelerator alternatives. The bars compare what Dell documents for each.
This modelSiblings and successorEach value from that model’s own verified spec file · bars scale per column
Four builds for the scale-up work Dell aims the R960 at, each checked against its thermal and environmental tables. Only parts our configurator lists for the R960 are used, and each build opens there for changes.
Mission-critical ERP
16 TB scale-up ERP and database host
SAP HANA, Oracle and ERP lead Dell’s workload list for the R960, and here the full 16 TB carries no layout caveat: 64 × 256 GB modules, rated for 35°C in every storage layout, behind four 48-core Platinum 8468H processors.
4 × Xeon Platinum 8468H — 48 cores @ 2.1 GHz, 330 W each
64 × 256 GB DDR5-4800 RDIMM — 16 TB
12 × 7.68 TB NVMe on the 24-bay passive NVMe backplane
BOSS-N1 boot device
Broadcom 2 × 100GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
4 × 2800 W Titanium, 200–240 V (2+2)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
On air, 330 W processors are unsupported in ASHRAE A3 rooms, and 128 GB+ DIMMs are excluded in A3 and A4, so this build needs an A2 (10–35°C) environment.
The R860 guide lists no 32-bay front, so this Smart Flow layout is one the R960 has over its 2U sibling. Four 32-core Gold 6448H processors give 128 cores, and on air Dell rates these 250 W parts to 40°C inlet in this layout.
4 × Xeon Gold 6448H — 32 cores @ 2.4 GHz, 250 W each
64 × 64 GB DDR5-4800 RDIMM — 4 TB
32 × 3.84 TB SAS SSD — 122.88 TB raw
PERC H965i front controller
BOSS-N1 boot device
Broadcom 4 × 25GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0
4 × 2400 W Platinum (2+2)
VMware ESXi
Dell lists the 32-bay layout as dual-controller; we confirm the controller pairing when we quote. Double-wide GPUs are not supported with this front.
Sixteen EDSFF E3.S Gen5 drives feed four 60-core Platinum 8490H processors for data warehousing and business intelligence. The E3.S layout keeps the 350 W parts at 35°C on air and still allows double-wide GPUs if the workload later needs them.
4 × Xeon Platinum 8490H — 60 cores @ 1.9 GHz, 350 W each
64 × 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 8 TB
16 × 7.68 TB E3.S Gen5 NVMe — 122.88 TB raw
BOSS-N1 boot device
Mellanox 2 × 100GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
4 × 2800 W Titanium (2+2)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Adding double-wide GPUs means moving to riser configuration 3, the only layout with double-wide slots, and fitting the GPU air shroud; GPUs are not supported in ASHRAE A3 or A4.
Unlike the R860, whose supplies are all mixed-mode AC and 240 V DC units, the R960 offers a −48 to −60 V DC supply. Four 1100 W DC units in 2+2 pair with a moderate build: four 18-core Gold 6416H processors at 165 W, which Dell rates for 45°C inlet on air in the all-SAS layouts.
4 × Xeon Gold 6416H — 18 cores @ 2.2 GHz, 165 W each
None of the refurbished PowerEdge servers we configure has four sockets. Where an R960 is being considered for GPU or memory headroom rather than socket count, these two-socket models are the closest refurbished options.
14G · re-certified
PowerEdge R7425
2U · 2 × AMD EPYC 7001, up to 64 cores
32 DIMM slots · up to 4 TB DDR4
24 × 2.5" or 12 × 3.5" bays
GPU-capable · iDRAC9
Up to 64 cores, 4 TB and GPU capability in 2U, for teams comfortable with DDR4 and AMD EPYC 7001.
USB tape, NAS software stack, 12 Gb MD-series JBODs
Expansion & networking
PCIe slots
Up to 12 × Gen5 x16 (four CPUs) · 2 × Gen5 x16 with two CPUs
OCP
OCP NIC 3.0 SFF, Gen4 x16: 4 × 1GbE, 2 or 4 × 10GbE, 2 or 4 × 25GbE, 2 × 100GbE
LOM
Optional 2 × 1GbE (Broadcom BCM5720)
Accelerators
GPU envelope
Up to 4 × double-wide 400 W (riser configuration 3)
Restrictions
GPU air shroud required · double-wide cards not with 32 × 2.5" SAS or 16 + 8 NVMe fronts · no GPUs in ASHRAE A3/A4
Power
Supplies
Up to four hot-plug, 2+2 redundant
60 mm
1100 W Titanium · 1400 W Platinum · 1800 W Titanium (200–240 V only) · 1100 W −48 to −60 V DC
86 mm
2400 W Platinum · 2800 W Titanium (200–240 V only)
Ports & video
Front
1 × USB 2.0 · 1 × VGA · 1 × iDRAC Direct (micro-AB USB)
Rear
1 × USB 2.0 · 1 × USB 3.0 · 1 × VGA · 1 × dedicated iDRAC Ethernet · optional serial
Internal
1 × USB 3.0 (optional)
Video
Integrated Matrox G200, 16 MB
Environment
ASHRAE A2
10–35°C below 900 m
ASHRAE A3
5–40°C · no GPUs, 128 GB+ DIMMs, 2.5" NVMe or BOSS-N1 · on air, processors below 330 W and no slots 4 or 9
ASHRAE A4
5–45°C · same GPU, DIMM, NVMe and BOSS-N1 exclusions · on air, processors below 250 W and no slots 4 or 9
Acoustics
Four 350 W processors, 64 DIMMs, 32 drives: 77 dB(A) at maximum load (35°C)
12 — FAQ
R960 questions, answered from the documentation
What is the maximum memory of the Dell PowerEdge R960?
The R960 has 64 DDR5 RDIMM slots, 16 per processor, and Dell states a 16 TB maximum — 64 × 256 GB. Its thermal matrix rates 256 GB modules for 35°C in every storage layout, and the guide sets no one-per-channel limit on them. Filling both DIMMs of a channel lowers the speed from 4800 to 4400 MT/s.
How many GPUs does the R960 support?
Up to four double-wide cards at 400 W, according to Dell’s feature table, in riser configuration 3 with a GPU air shroud. The thermal matrix lists 300 W double-width cards at 35°C and excludes them with the 32-bay SAS and 16 + 8 NVMe fronts. ASHRAE A3 and A4 rooms do not allow GPUs at all.
Which processors does the R960 support?
Exactly the R860’s list: ten H-series chips from Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Scalable range, the smallest an 8-core Gold 6434H at 3.7 GHz and the largest the 60-core, 350 W Platinum 8490H. Up to four can be fitted, and Dell recommends against mixing models in a four-socket build.
How many drive bays does the R960 have?
Up to 32 × 2.5-inch SAS4/SATA drives at the front in a dual-controller layout. NVMe options are 24 × 2.5-inch Gen4 drives, 16 SAS4/SATA plus 8 NVMe, 16 EDSFF E3.S Gen5, or 16 E3.S with 8 SAS4/SATA. There are no rear drive bays.
How many PCIe slots does the R960 have?
Up to twelve PCIe Gen5 x16 slots in the maximum-I/O layout (ten full-height, two low-profile), eight in the scale-out layout and four in the basic four-processor layout. With two processors only slots 3 and 11 are active. Each processor supplies 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes, and the OCP 3.0 slot (Gen4 x16) and optional 2 × 1GbE LOM are separate.
What power supplies does the R960 use?
Four hot-plug supplies in 2+2: 1100 W Titanium, 1400 W Platinum, 1800 W Titanium, 2400 W Platinum or 2800 W Titanium AC, plus a DC-only 1100 W model for −48 to −60 V feeds. At 100–120 V the 2400 W model is rated 1400 W and the two smallest AC models 1050 W, while the 1800 W and 2800 W models need high line.
How big and heavy is the PowerEdge R960?
It is a 4U server, 174.3 mm high, 482 mm wide and 883.195 mm deep with the bezel (869.195 mm without). Fully populated it weighs up to 60.2 kg; Dell gives no figure for a system without drives and supplies.
How does the R960 differ from the R860?
Processor choice, DIMM slot count and memory ceiling are shared. The R960 spends its extra 2U on I/O and power: twelve Gen5 slots against eight, four double-wide GPUs against none, 32 front bays against 24 (the R860 adds rear bays for 28), and a 2+2 bank of four supplies with a −48 V DC choice, where the R860 has two in 1+1.
What changed from the R940xa to the R960?
Dell compares the R960 with the R940xa: 2nd Gen Xeon becomes 4th Gen, 48 DDR4 slots with PMem and NVDIMM become 64 DDR5, and twelve Gen3 slots become twelve Gen5. The GPU envelope moves from two 300 W double-wide or eight single-wide cards to four 400 W double-wide, E3.S Gen5 drives and optional liquid cooling arrive, and the height stays at 174.3 mm.
Is the Dell PowerEdge R960 end of life?
The December 2024 R960 guide lists no end-of-sale or end-of-service date. It does describe Post Standard Support, extending hardware coverage by up to five years beyond the first seven years of ProSupport. We add Dell’s lifecycle dates to our end-of-life checker as they appear.
Specifications are extracted from Dell’s published documents and independently re-checked line by line. Configurations are quote-based; availability and exact options are confirmed at quotation. Last reviewed 2026-09-11.
