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Technical data sheet · PowerEdge XE AI · 6U air-cooled, dual-socket

Dell PowerEdge XE9680Specifications, configurations & comparisons

The XE9680 is Dell’s air-cooled 6U eight-GPU server. Two 4th or 5th Gen Xeon Scalable processors host one of six accelerator boards — NVIDIA HGX A100, H100, H200 or H20, AMD Instinct MI300X or Intel Gaudi 3 — with ten front-facing Gen5 slots for the cluster fabric. This page maps what each board changes: memory minimums, NIC limits, supplies, fans and weight.

6U Rack (air-cooled, 8-way GPU)2 sockets4th Gen Xeon Scalable5th Gen Xeon ScalableiDRAC9
8GPUs on one boardSXM4/SXM5 or OAM 2.0
6GPU board optionsNVIDIA, AMD or Intel
4TBDDR5 maximum32 × 128 GB RDIMM
10PCIe Gen5 x16 slotsfront-facing · 8 with Gaudi 3
6hot-plug PSUs2800 W to 3200 W · 5+1 or 3+3
114.05kgheaviest buildMI300X with 16 × E3.S
Configure an XE9680 →Get a UK quote

Every figure checked against the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 Technical Guide (Rev. A09, July 2025)

Dell PowerEdge XE9680 front with 16 E3.S drive bays above ten numbered PCIe Gen5 slots (31–40), control panels at each side

Image: Dell Technologies

Form factor
6U Rack (air-cooled, 8-way GPU) · 2 sockets
Processors
4th Gen Xeon · 5th Gen Xeon
Memory
32 × DDR5 RDIMM · up to 4 TB
Drive bays
Up to 16 · 3 drive-bay layouts
Expansion
10 × PCIe · 1 × OCP 3.0
GPUs
Up to 8 · 7 listed
Boot
BOSS-N1 (2 x M.2 NVMe SSD, hardware RAID 1)
Management
iDRAC9
01 — Overview

The XE9680 at a glance

Our read of Dell’s documentation: where the XE9680 is strong, and the limits worth knowing before you spec one.

Strengths

  • One chassis, six eight-GPU boards: HGX A100 (SXM4), HGX H100, H200 and H20 (SXM5), Instinct MI300X and Gaudi 3 (both OAM 2.0).
  • Dell’s thermal tables clear every listed processor with every storage layout at 35°C, and NVIDIA and AMD builds run at that inlet without performance loss.
  • Ten x16 Gen5 slots open at the front of the chassis; the two on the PCIe base board are the ones rated for DPUs above 75 W.
  • Up to 16 E3.S drives wired straight to the PCIe switch board at x4 Gen5; the 2.5-inch alternatives are eight NVMe drives on that same direct path or eight SAS/SATA SSDs behind a front PERC H965i.
  • The MI300X build pools up to 1.5 TB of coherent GPU memory, and the Gaudi 3 board brings its own six 800 Gb OSFP ports for RoCE scale-out.

Watch-outs

  • Air cooling only, and ASHRAE A2 only: A3 and A4 environments are not supported, and the iDRAC warns at 38°C inlet (33°C with Gaudi 3).
  • Six supplies are mandatory and there is no low-line option; the 2800 W unit’s C22 inlet needs C21-to-C20 jumpers, and the 3200 W unit is sold only in the US and Canada.
  • At 1008.77 mm deep with the bezel and up to 114.05 kg, it needs a deep rack and a server lift — Dell flags possible clashes with rear PDUs and doors.
  • Board choice narrows everything else: MI300X takes no SmartNICs or DPUs and needs at least 2 TB of RAM; Gaudi 3 drops to eight slots, eight NVMe drives and no RAID.
  • VMware ESXi is supported only with the H100 board; every other board is Linux-only (Ubuntu, RHEL or SLES).
Processors14 SKUs
Cores / CPU24–64
DIMM slots32
Drive layouts3
Max bays16
GPUsup to 8
PSU options3 · to 3,200 W
02 — Processors

14 supported processors, mapped

Fourteen Xeon Scalable models across two generations: eight 4th Gen parts from 24 to 56 cores and six 5th Gen parts from 24 to 64 cores, spanning 225 W to 350 W. In this server they are mainly there to feed the GPU board, and Dell cools all of them with one heat sink.

Processor landscape — cores × TDP

14 SKUs · 2 families
Dell PowerEdge XE9680: every supported processor by cores and TDP0816243240485664200 W250 W300 W350 WCores per processorIntel Xeon Platinum 8480+ — 56 cores / 112 threads · 350 W · 2 GHz base · 105 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Platinum 8470 — 52 cores / 104 threads · 350 W · 2 GHz base · 98 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 — 48 cores / 96 threads · 350 W · 2.1 GHz base · 90 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Platinum 8460Y+ — 40 cores / 80 threads · 300 W · 2 GHz base · 75 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Platinum 8452Y — 36 cores / 72 threads · 300 W · 2 GHz base · 67.5 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Platinum 8462Y+ — 32 cores / 64 threads · 300 W · 2.8 GHz base · 60 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Gold 6448Y — 32 cores / 64 threads · 225 W · 2.2 GHz base · 60 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Gold 6442Y — 24 cores / 48 threads · 225 W · 2.6 GHz base · 45 MB cache · DDR5-4800Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ — 64 cores / 128 threads · 350 W · 1.9 GHz base · 320 MB cache · DDR5-5600Intel Xeon Platinum 8580 — 60 cores / 120 threads · 350 W · 2 GHz base · 300 MB cache · DDR5-5600Intel Xeon Platinum 8568Y+ — 48 cores / 96 threads · 350 W · 2.3 GHz base · 300 MB cache · DDR5-5600Intel Xeon Platinum 8562Y+ — 32 cores / 64 threads · 300 W · 2.8 GHz base · 60 MB cache · DDR5-5600Intel Xeon Gold 6548Y+ — 32 cores / 64 threads · 250 W · 2.5 GHz base · 60 MB cache · DDR5-5200Intel Xeon Gold 6542Y — 24 cores / 48 threads · 250 W · 2.9 GHz base · 60 MB cache · DDR5-52008592+64 cores · 5.5 W/core — top SKU and most efficient
4th Gen Xeon Scalable 85th Gen Xeon Scalable 6Bubble size = L3 cache · hover a bubble for the full SKU

Processor explorer

filter · sort · compare
ProcessorCores / threadsBaseL3 cacheTDPW / coreMemory
Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+64 / 1281.9 GHz320 MB350 W5.5DDR5-5600
Intel Xeon Platinum 858060 / 1202 GHz300 MB350 W5.8DDR5-5600
Intel Xeon Platinum 8480+56 / 1122 GHz105 MB350 W6.3DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 847052 / 1042 GHz98 MB350 W6.7DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 846848 / 962.1 GHz90 MB350 W7.3DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8568Y+48 / 962.3 GHz300 MB350 W7.3DDR5-5600
Intel Xeon Platinum 8460Y+40 / 802 GHz75 MB300 W7.5DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8452Y36 / 722 GHz67.5 MB300 W8.3DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8462Y+32 / 642.8 GHz60 MB300 W9.4DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Gold 6448Y32 / 642.2 GHz60 MB225 W7.0DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Platinum 8562Y+32 / 642.8 GHz60 MB300 W9.4DDR5-5600
Intel Xeon Gold 6548Y+32 / 642.5 GHz60 MB250 W7.8DDR5-5200
Intel Xeon Gold 6442Y24 / 482.6 GHz45 MB225 W9.4DDR5-4800
Intel Xeon Gold 6542Y24 / 482.9 GHz60 MB250 W10.4DDR5-5200
  • Every processor uses the 2U HPR heat sink with High Performance Gold CPU fans, and Dell lists each one as supported with all three drive layouts at up to 35°C.
  • UPI runs at 16 GT/s on the 4th Gen parts and 20 GT/s on the 5th Gen parts, with up to four links per socket.
  • Each socket supplies 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes. Two processors are required in every storage configuration Dell lists.
  • The Gold 6548Y+ and 6542Y are rated for 5200 MT/s memory rather than 5600 MT/s; Dell’s tables give turbo only as a yes/no entry.
03 — Memory

32 DIMM slots, 16 per processor

Each socket drives eight DDR5 channels and 16 RDIMMs, so a full set of 128 GB modules gives 4 TB. The GPU board sets the floor: Dell’s minimum-memory table rules out some DIMM counts and sizes depending on which accelerator is fitted.

Capacity with every slot filled

by DIMM size
32 GB1 TB32 DIMMs only · NVIDIA boards only64 GB2 TB16 DIMMs not with MI300X or Gaudi 396 GB3 TB16 DIMMs not with MI300X or Gaudi 3128 GB4 TB32 slots · 16 per processor · each tick = one DIMM

Operating speed

per Dell memory tables
Processor1 DIMM / channel2 DIMMs / channel
5th Gen Xeon Scalable5600 MT/s4400 MT/s
4th Gen Xeon Scalable4800 MT/s4400 MT/s
  • The 32 GB module is valid only as a full set of 32 (1 TB) and only with the NVIDIA boards; MI300X and Gaudi 3 reject it altogether.
  • MI300X systems need 2 TB or more. With 64 GB or 96 GB DIMMs, both MI300X and Gaudi 3 need all 32 slots filled; sixteen 128 GB modules are allowed.
  • Per-module ranges from Dell’s table: 64 GB gives 1–2 TB, 96 GB gives 1.5–3 TB and 128 GB gives 2–4 TB.
  • Blanking panels are not needed once 16 or more DIMMs are fitted.
04 — Storage

3 drive-bay layouts, up to 16 bays

Three front layouts and no rear bays: sixteen E3.S drives or eight 2.5-inch NVMe drives run directly from the PCIe switch board under S160 software RAID, or eight 2.5-inch SAS/SATA SSDs sit behind a front PERC H965i. Dell’s spec sheet puts either route at 122.88 TB raw.

Headline layouts

front panel view

Front panel

16 × EDSFF NVMe at the front — 16 bays in total.

SAS/SATANVMeSAS/SATA + NVMe

Controllers & boot

  • PERC H965i (fPERC12, x8 SAS4/SATA) — RAID. front PERC; not supported with Intel Gaudi3 configuration; cache size not stated in the guide
  • BOSS-N1 — Boot. HWRAID 1, 2 x M.2 SSDs, rear-accessible
  • S160 NVMe — Software RAID. for PSB-direct NVMe (E3.S / U.2); not supported with Intel Gaudi3 configuration
  • BOSS-N1 (2 x M.2 NVMe SSD, hardware RAID 1) — boot
  • Each E3.S bay gets its own x4 Gen5 link from the PCIe switch board, and the 16 bays sit in two cages of eight.
  • Gaudi 3 systems are limited to the eight-bay 2.5-inch NVMe layout, and neither the PERC H965i nor S160 software RAID is supported with that board.
  • The operating system boots from a rear-accessible BOSS-N1 carrying two M.2 NVMe drives in hardware RAID 1.
  • Empty bays need drive blanks. The 16 × E3.S layout adds 0.75 kg to 1 kg over the 2.5-inch builds in Dell’s weight tables.

Every documented layout

3 with drive bays
8 x 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe SSD direct from PCIe Switch …8 x 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe SSD direct from PCIe Switch Board (config C03, S160)88 x 2.5-inch U.2 SAS/SATA SSD with fPERC H965i (co…8 x 2.5-inch U.2 SAS4/SATA SSD with fPERC H965i (config C02)816 x E3.S EDSFF NVMe direct from PCIe Switch Board…16 x E3.S EDSFF NVMe direct from PCIe Switch Board (x4 Gen5 each) - two 8 x E3.S front cages (config C01, S160)16Bays · solid = front · dashed = rear · brighter = NVMe-only
2.5-inch3.5-inchEDSFF (E1.S / E3.S)
05 — Accelerators & I/O

GPUs, PCIe and networking

The GPU tray holds a single eight-GPU baseboard, chosen at order time. NVIDIA’s HGX boards link their GPUs through NVLink (A100 on the Delta board with its own heat sinks; H100, H200 and H20 on Delta-Next); MI300X joins its eight OAMs with Infinity Fabric; Gaudi 3 exposes six 800 Gb OSFP ports at the rear for RoCE. The A100 connects to the host over PCIe Gen4, the rest over Gen5. Eight GPUs per board: 700 W each for H100 and H200, 500 W for H20 and A100, 750 W for MI300X and 900 W for Gaudi 3, all air-cooled by ten rear GPU fans (twelve with Gaudi 3).

NVIDIA HGX H100 80GB SXM5 8-GPU

80GB · 8

NVIDIA HGX H200 141GB SXM5 8-GPU

141GB · 8

NVIDIA HGX H20 96GB SXM5 8-GPU

96GB · 8

NVIDIA HGX A100 80GB SXM4 8-GPU

80GB · 8

NVIDIA HGX H800 SXM5 8-GPU

8

AMD Instinct MI300X 192GB OAM 8-GPU

192GB · 8

Intel Gaudi3 128GB OAM 8-GPU

128GB · 8

I/O topology

80 lanes per CPU
CPU 180 × PCIe 5.08 ch · 16 DIMMCPU 280 × PCIe 5.08 ch · 16 DIMMUPI · up to 4 links · 16 / 20 GT/s8 × PCIe Gen5 x16 (PSB)slots 32–39 · risers RS1–RS42 × PCIe Gen5 x16 (PBB)slots 31, 40 · DPUs above 75 WOCP 3.0 · Gen4 x8up to 4 ports · 25 GbE maximumLOM 2 × 1 GbE (BCM5720)plus dedicated iDRAC9 port

Each processor provides 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes. Eight x16 slots (32–39) sit on four risers from the PCIe switch board and two more (31 and 40) on the PCIe base board; all ten are full-height, half-length, and none is hot-swappable.

Network adapters Dell lists

27 options
AdapterPortsForm
Intel OCP 3.0 2 x 25GbE SFP28 (V1/V2)2 × 25GbEOCP 3.0
Intel OCP 3.0 4 x 25GbE SFP28 (V1/V2)4 × 25GbEOCP 3.0
Intel OCP 3.0 4 x 10GbE SFP284 × 10GbEOCP 3.0
Intel OCP 3.0 4 x 10GbE BT (V1/V2)4 × 10GbEOCP 3.0
Broadcom OCP 3.0 4 x 25GbE SFP284 × 25GbEOCP 3.0
Broadcom OCP 3.0 2 x 25GbE SFP28 (V2/V3)2 × 25GbEOCP 3.0
Broadcom OCP 3.0 4 x 10GbE BT4 × 10GbEOCP 3.0
Inventec LOM card 2 x 1GbE (BCM5720)2 × 1GbELOM
Mellanox SmartNIC/DPU 400G 2P (BlueField-3) - up to 10 (NVIDIA GPU config)2 × 400GbPCIe
Mellanox SmartNIC/DPU 200G 2P - up to 2 (slots 31/40, NVIDIA GPU config)2 × 200GbPCIe
Mellanox InfiniBand NDR400 1P (ConnectX-7) - up to 10 (NVIDIA GPU config)1 × NDR 400GbPCIe
Mellanox InfiniBand NDR200 1P (ConnectX-7) - up to 101 × NDR 200GbPCIe
Mellanox InfiniBand ConnectX-6 HDR100 1P - up to 10 (NVIDIA GPU config)1 × HDR100PCIe
Mellanox InfiniBand ConnectX-6 DX HDR100 1P - up to 10 (NVIDIA GPU config)1 × HDR100PCIe
Mellanox InfiniBand ConnectX-6 HDR 1P - up to 10 (MI300X config)1 × HDR 200GbPCIe
Mellanox NIC N400 1P (400GbE) - up to 10 (8 with Gaudi3)1 × 400GbEPCIe
Mellanox NIC N200 1P (200GbE) - up to 10 (8 with Gaudi3)1 × 200GbEPCIe
Broadcom NIC 400Gb 2P - up to 10 (MI300X config)2 × 400GbEPCIe
Mellanox NIC 100Gb 2P - up to 10 (2 in MI300X config; 8 with Gaudi3)2 × 100GbEPCIe
Broadcom NIC 100Gb 2P - up to 8 (10 with MI300X; 8 with Gaudi3)2 × 100GbEPCIe
Intel NIC 100Gb 2P - up to 10 (8 with Gaudi3)2 × 100GbEPCIe
Mellanox NIC 25Gb 2P - up to 10 (NVIDIA GPU config)2 × 25GbEPCIe
Broadcom NIC 25Gb 2P SFP - up to 10 (8 with Gaudi3)2 × 25GbEPCIe
Intel NIC 25Gb 2P - up to 9 (8 with Gaudi3)2 × 25GbEPCIe
Broadcom NIC 25Gb 4P SFP - up to 8 (10 with MI300X; 8 with Gaudi3)4 × 25GbEPCIe
Intel NIC 25Gb 4P FH - up to 10 (8 with Gaudi3)4 × 25GbEPCIe
Embedded OSFP 6 x 800Gb (Intel Gaudi3 configuration only, RoCE scale-out)6 × 800Gbembedded
  • With NVIDIA boards Dell allows up to ten of most 400G, 200G and 100G adapters, NDR400 InfiniBand and dual-port 400G SmartNIC/DPUs included; the 200G DPU is limited to slots 31 and 40.
  • With MI300X the list changes to up to ten Broadcom 400Gb or Mellanox N400 cards, no SmartNICs or DPUs, and at most two Mellanox 100Gb cards in slots 31 and 40.
  • With Gaudi 3, slots 33 and 38 are blocked for airflow, so every adapter type tops out at eight cards.
  • Fill odd-numbered slots first. When two high-speed card types are mixed, the type with two or fewer cards goes in slots 31 and 40.
06 — Power & cooling

3 power supplies, 2,800–3,200 W

Six 86 mm, 54 V supplies are fitted in every build, running as 5+1 (not redundant, full performance) or 3+3 fault-tolerant (the system throttles if more than one fails). There are three models, and the GPU board and the site’s supply decide which one applies.

05001000150020002500300035002800 W Titanium — Mixed mode: 200-240 V AC 15.6 A / 240 V DC 13.6 A; 86 mm 54 VDC form factor; C22 inlet (C21 jumper cord); 6 PSUs, 5+1 or 3+3 FTR redundancy2800Titanium3000 W Titanium — Multi-rated: 3000 W at 209.1-240 V AC 16 A / 240 V DC 14.6 A, derates to 2800 W at 200-209 V AC; supported ONLY with the XE9680-Gaudi3 configuration; 6 PSUs, 5+1 or 3+3 FTR3000Titanium3200 W Titanium — 277 V AC 13 A / 336 V DC 11.5 A (spec sheet: 260-400 VDC); APP 2006G1 power cords; available only in US & Canada; 6 PSUs, 5+1 or 3+3 FTR3200TitaniumWatts · dashed line = output at 100–120 V low line
AC277 VAC / HVDC
  • The 2800 W Titanium unit takes AC between 200 V and 240 V, or 240 V DC; Dell rates its peak at 4760 W. Its C22 inlet needs a C21-to-C20 jumper to the PDU; ordinary C19/C20 leads will not fit.
  • The 3000 W multi-rated unit, peaking at 5100 W, is supported only in the Gaudi 3 build and falls back to 2800 W between 200 V and 209 V AC.
  • The 3200 W unit runs on 277 V AC or 336 V DC with APP 2006G1 cords, peaks at 5440 W and is available only in the US and Canada. None of the three supports low-line input.
  • Dell advises against the iDRAC power cap here: it only throttles the processors, not the GPUs that draw most of the power, and from firmware 7.00.60.00 the function is gone.
07 — Management, security & OS

Run it, secure it, choose the OS

Management

  • iDRAC9 (Express, Enterprise or Datacenter licence)
  • iDRAC Direct (front Micro-AB USB)
  • iDRAC RESTful API with Redfish
  • iDRAC Service Module
  • OpenManage Enterprise with Power Manager, Update Manager and Services plug-ins
  • CloudIQ for PowerEdge
  • Integrations: ServiceNow, Ansible, Terraform, BMC TrueSight

Security

  • Silicon Root of Trust
  • Cryptographically signed firmware
  • Secure Boot
  • Secured Component Verification
  • Data at Rest Encryption (SEDs, local or external key management)
  • System Lockdown (iDRAC9 Enterprise or Datacenter)
  • Secure Erase
  • TPM 2.0 FIPS, CC-TCG certified; TPM 2.0 China

Operating systems

  • Canonical Ubuntu Server LTS (all six boards)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (all six boards)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (all six boards)
  • VMware ESXi (H100 board only)
08 — Compare

How the XE9680 compares with its family

The XE9680 is the air-cooled, Intel-hosted member of Dell’s eight-GPU line. The XE9680L keeps its Xeon host but moves to a 4U liquid-cooled chassis for H200 and B200, and the XE9685L pairs the same liquid-cooled design with AMD EPYC 9005. The 4U XE8640 carries a four-GPU HGX H100 board; the 10U XE9780 (Xeon 6, HGX B300 or B200) and XE9785 (EPYC 9005, HGX B300 or Instinct MI355X) are the next step up; and the XE9712 is a liquid-cooled GB300 NVL72 rack-scale sled.

XE9680XE9680LXE9685LXE8640XE9780XE9785XE9712Cores / CPUXE9680: 6464XE9680L: 6464XE9685L: 192192XE8640: 6464XE9780: 8686XE9785: 192192XE9712: 7272DIMM slotsXE9680: 3232XE9680L: 3232XE9685L: 2424XE8640: 3232XE9780: 3232XE9785: 2424XE9712: 00Max memoryXE9680: 4 TB4XE9680L: 4 TB4XE9685L: 3 TB3XE8640: 4 TB4XE9780: 4 TB4XE9785: 6 TB6XE9712: 0.469 TB0.469Max drive baysXE9680: 1616XE9680L: 88XE9685L: 88XE8640: 88XE9780: 1616XE9785: 1616XE9712: 88Max GPUsXE9680: 88XE9680L: 88XE9685L: 88XE8640: 44XE9780: 88XE9785: 88XE9712: 44Largest PSUXE9680: 3,200 W3,200XE9680L: 3,000 W3,000XE9685L: 3,000 W3,000XE8640: 3,200 W3,200XE9780: 3,200 W3,200XE9785: 3,200 W3,200XE9712: 5,500 W5,500
This modelSiblings and successorEach value from that model’s own verified spec file · bars scale per column
XE9680L data sheetXE9685L data sheetXE8640 data sheetXE9785 data sheetXE9712 data sheetXE9680 vs NVIDIA DGX B200XE9680 vs Supermicro SYS-821GE-TNHRXE9640 vs XE9680 vs XE9680LLenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 data sheetLenovo ThinkSystem SR680a V3 data sheet
09 — Use cases

Four builds that suit the XE9680

Four eight-GPU builds, one per accelerator family, each obeying the memory, slot and supply rules tied to its board. All components pass the XE9680’s configurator checks, and a single click loads the build so you can tune it and request pricing.

LLM training

HGX H200 training node on InfiniBand

Eight H200 SXM5 GPUs with 141 GB each give 1128 GB of GPU memory joined by NVLink, and the NVIDIA slot table accepts up to ten NDR400 InfiniBand cards for the east-west fabric. Two 64-core processors and 2 TB of DDR5 keep the data pipeline fed.

  • 2 × Xeon Platinum 8592+ — 64 cores @ 1.9 GHz, 350 W each
  • 8 × NVIDIA H200 141 GB SXM5 on the HGX baseboard (700 W each)
  • 32 × 64 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 2 TB at 4400 MT/s (two per channel)
  • 8 × 7.68 TB NVMe U.2 direct to the PCIe switch board — 61.44 TB raw
  • S160 software RAID plus BOSS-N1 boot pair (RAID 1)
  • Mellanox NDR400 InfiniBand adapter, 1 port — up to 10 per server
  • 2800 W Titanium supplies — Dell fits six (5+1 or 3+3)
  • Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

Six supplies are required; the configurator starts at two, so we set the count when we quote. The 2800 W inlet needs C21-to-C20 jumper cords, and GPU fans must be swapped within 30 seconds.

Open this build in the configurator →
Large-model inference

MI300X node with 1.5 TB of GPU memory

Eight Instinct MI300X OAMs at 192 GB each pool up to 1.5 TB of coherent GPU memory over Infinity Fabric, the largest total of the six boards (H200 reaches 1128 GB, Gaudi 3 1024 GB). Sixteen E3.S drives fill the front at Dell’s 122.88 TB figure, and 2 TB of DDR5 meets the board’s memory floor.

  • 2 × Xeon Platinum 8580 — 60 cores @ 2 GHz, 350 W each
  • 8 × AMD Instinct MI300X 192 GB OAM (750 W each) — 1.5 TB of GPU memory
  • 32 × 64 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 2 TB, the MI300X minimum
  • 16 × 7.68 TB E3.S Gen5 NVMe — 122.88 TB raw
  • S160 software RAID plus BOSS-N1 boot pair (RAID 1)
  • Broadcom 400Gb dual-port NIC — up to 10 with MI300X
  • 2800 W Titanium supplies — Dell fits six
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

MI300X systems take no SmartNICs or DPUs, need at least 2 TB of RAM (64 GB and 96 GB modules must fill all 32 slots) and limit Mellanox 100Gb cards to two. We confirm drive capacities against Dell’s current list at quote.

Open this build in the configurator →
Ethernet scale-out

Gaudi 3 node with built-in 800 Gb ports

Gaudi 3 carries six 800 Gb OSFP ports on the accelerator board itself for RoCE Ethernet scale-out, which leaves its eight usable PCIe slots free for front-end and storage networking. Sixteen 128 GB modules satisfy the board’s memory rule.

  • 2 × Xeon Platinum 8568Y+ — 48 cores @ 2.3 GHz, 350 W each
  • 8 × Intel Gaudi 3 128 GB OAM (900 W each) with 6 × 800 Gb OSFP on the board
  • 16 × 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 2 TB at 5600 MT/s (one per channel)
  • 8 × 3.84 TB NVMe U.2 — 30.72 TB raw
  • BOSS-N1 boot pair (RAID 1) — no PERC or software RAID with Gaudi 3
  • Intel 100 GbE dual-port NIC — up to 8 with Gaudi 3
  • 3000 W multi-rated Titanium supplies — Dell fits six
  • Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

The 3000 W multi-rated supply is supported only with Gaudi 3, although Dell’s acoustic test build for this board used 2800 W units. Gaudi 3 also brings twelve rear fans and only eight PCIe slots (33 and 38 are blocked). Allow at least 92.7 mm between the fan cage and the rack door for the OSFP cables; the iDRAC warns at 33°C inlet and GPU fans must be replaced within five minutes.

Open this build in the configurator →
Private AI on vSphere

HGX H100 host for VMware ESXi

The H100 board is the only one Dell supports under VMware ESXi, which makes this the build for teams keeping GPU workloads inside vSphere. The front PERC H965i protects eight SAS SSDs, and 1.5 TB of DDR5 uses the smallest DIMM count Dell allows with 96 GB modules.

  • 2 × Xeon Gold 6548Y+ — 32 cores @ 2.5 GHz, 250 W each
  • 8 × NVIDIA H100 80 GB SXM5 on the HGX baseboard (700 W each)
  • 16 × 96 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 1.5 TB (one per channel)
  • 8 × 3.84 TB SAS SSD — 30.72 TB raw
  • PERC H965i front RAID controller plus BOSS-N1 boot pair
  • Broadcom 100 GbE dual-port NIC — up to 8 with NVIDIA boards
  • 2800 W Titanium supplies — Dell fits six
  • VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Dell lists VMware ESXi for the H100 board only, without naming a release in the guide, so we check the exact ESXi version against Dell’s OS support matrix before ordering. These Gold processors run memory at up to 5200 MT/s.

Open this build in the configurator →
10 — Full specifications

Dell PowerEdge XE9680 specifications

Chassis & cooling

Form factor6U rack server, air-cooled
Dimensions (H × W × D)263.2 × 482.0 mm · 1008.77 mm deep with bezel, 995 mm without · 973 mm ear to fan handle
Width by layer447.0 mm top, 434.0 mm bottom (482.0 mm at the ears)
Weight105 kg to 114.05 kg fully populated, by GPU board and drive layout
Fans6 HPR Gold mid-tray + 10 HPR Gold rear GPU fans (12 with Gaudi 3) · N+1
EnvironmentASHRAE A2 only, 10–35°C · A3/A4 not supported
RailsB28 stab-in sliding rails (4-post) · optional cable management arm
BezelOptional LCD bezel or security bezel

Processor

SocketsTwo (required)
Families4th Gen Xeon Scalable (8 models) · 5th Gen Xeon Scalable (6 models)
Cores per processor24–56 (4th Gen) · 24–64 (5th Gen)
TDP225 W to 350 W
UPIUp to 4 links · 16 GT/s (4th Gen) or 20 GT/s (5th Gen)
PCIe lanes80 × PCIe 5.0 per processor
ChipsetIntel C741

Memory

Slots32 DDR5 RDIMM · 16 per processor · 8 channels
DIMM sizes32, 64, 96 GB (dual rank) · 128 GB (quad rank)
Speed5600 MT/s 1 DPC (5th Gen) · 4800 MT/s 1 DPC (4th Gen) · 4400 MT/s 2 DPC
Maximum4 TB (32 × 128 GB)
Board minimumsMI300X: 2 TB or more · MI300X and Gaudi 3: 32 DIMMs of 64/96 GB, or 16 × 128 GB

Storage

Front16 × E3.S NVMe (x4 Gen5, PSB direct) · 8 × 2.5" NVMe (PSB direct) · 8 × 2.5" SAS/SATA SSD
RearNone
ControllersFront PERC H965i (SAS/SATA) · S160 software RAID (NVMe) · neither with Gaudi 3
BootBOSS-N1, 2 × M.2 NVMe, hardware RAID 1, rear-accessible
Capacity122.88 TB raw maximum per layout (spec sheet)

Accelerators

NVIDIA8 × HGX A100 80 GB 500 W SXM4 · H100 80 GB 700 W · H200 141 GB 700 W · H20 96 GB 500 W (SXM5), NVLink
AMD8 × Instinct MI300X 192 GB 750 W OAM 2.0, Infinity Fabric, up to 1.5 TB coherent GPU memory
Intel8 × Gaudi 3 128 GB 900 W OAM 2.0, 6 × 800 Gb OSFP embedded
Host linkPCIe Gen4 (A100) · PCIe Gen5 (all others)

Expansion & networking

PCIe10 × x16 Gen5 FHHL, front-facing (8 on the PCIe switch board, 2 on the base board) · 8 with Gaudi 3
OCP1 × OCP 3.0 SFF, Gen4 x8, up to 4 ports, 25 GbE maximum, 35 W
LOM2 × 1 GbE (Broadcom BCM5720)
Fabric adaptersUp to 10 × NDR400/NDR200/HDR100 InfiniBand or 400G/200G/100G Ethernet, by GPU board

Power

Supplies6 × 86 mm 54 V hot-plug · 5+1 or 3+3 fault-tolerant · do not mix vendors
2800 W Titanium200–240 V AC or 240 V DC · C22 inlet (C21 cord) · peak 4760 W
3000 W Titanium209.1–240 V AC or 240 V DC (2800 W at 200–209 V) · Gaudi 3 only · peak 5100 W
3200 W Titanium277 V AC or 336 V DC · APP 2006G1 cords · US and Canada only · peak 5440 W
Low lineNot supported

Ports & video

FrontUSB 2.0 · iDRAC Direct (Micro-AB USB) · VGA
RearUSB 2.0 · USB 3.0 · VGA · dedicated iDRAC9 Ethernet
VideoIntegrated Matrox G200, 16 MB

Acoustics

GPU operating, 25°C9.7 B (H100/H200/H20) · 10.0 B (A100) · 9.8 B (MI300X) · 8.7 B (Gaudi 3)
Maximum loading, 35°C9.9 B to 10.2 B sound power · 84–87 dBA at the bystander position
11 — FAQ

XE9680 questions, answered from the documentation

Which GPUs does the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 support?

One eight-GPU board chosen from six: NVIDIA HGX A100 80 GB (SXM4), HGX H100 80 GB, H200 141 GB or H20 96 GB (SXM5), AMD Instinct MI300X 192 GB (OAM) or Intel Gaudi 3 128 GB (OAM). The NVIDIA boards use NVLink, MI300X uses Infinity Fabric and Gaudi 3 has six embedded 800 Gb OSFP ports.

How much memory does the XE9680 take?

Up to 4 TB across 32 DDR5 RDIMM slots using 128 GB modules. With a single module per channel, 5th Gen Xeon runs them at 5600 MT/s and 4th Gen at 4800 MT/s; filling both slots per channel drops either to 4400 MT/s. MI300X builds need at least 2 TB, and 32 GB modules are supported only as a set of 32 with NVIDIA boards.

Is the XE9680 air-cooled or liquid-cooled?

Air-cooled only. Six HPR Gold fans sit in a mid tray and ten more cool the GPUs from the rear, twelve with Gaudi 3, and the server runs only in ASHRAE A2 conditions up to 35°C. Dell’s liquid-cooled eight-GPU designs are the 4U XE9680L and XE9685L.

How many PCIe slots does the XE9680 have?

Ten x16 PCIe Gen5 full-height, half-length slots, all at the front: eight on the PCIe switch board and two on the base board for DPUs above 75 W. The Gaudi 3 build blocks slots 33 and 38 for airflow, leaving eight. There is also one OCP 3.0 slot at Gen4 x8.

What power supplies does the XE9680 need?

Six hot-plug supplies in every build, as 5+1 or 3+3. The 2800 W Titanium unit is the general choice, the 3000 W multi-rated unit is for Gaudi 3 only, and the 3200 W 277 V AC / 336 V DC unit is sold only in the US and Canada. Dell lists no low-line rating for any of them.

How big and heavy is the PowerEdge XE9680?

It is 6U: 263.2 mm high, 482.0 mm wide and 1008.77 mm deep with the bezel. Dell’s tables give 105 kg to 114.05 kg fully populated depending on the GPU board and drives, so a server lift is needed, and Dell warns that the length may clash with rear PDUs or doors.

How many drives does the XE9680 hold?

Up to sixteen E3.S NVMe drives, or eight 2.5-inch NVMe or SAS/SATA SSDs, all at the front; there are no rear bays. Dell’s spec sheet gives 122.88 TB raw for either layout. Gaudi 3 systems are limited to the eight-bay NVMe option without RAID.

Can the XE9680 run VMware ESXi?

Only with the NVIDIA H100 board. Dell’s OS matrix lists Ubuntu Server LTS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for all six boards, and VMware ESXi for the H100 alone.

How does the XE9680 differ from the XE9680L?

The XE9680L is the 4U direct liquid-cooled version, taking 5th Gen Xeon processors only and an HGX H200 or B200 board, with twelve PCIe Gen5 slots and eight NVMe bays. The XE9680 is 6U and air-cooled, accepts 4th or 5th Gen Xeon and six GPU boards (though not B200), and has ten slots and up to sixteen E3.S bays.

Is the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 end of life?

Dell’s July 2025 technical guide gives no model-wide end-of-sale or end-of-support date for the XE9680. Our server end-of-life checker records the dates once Dell publishes them, and we can quote maintenance for systems already in service.

Sources & verification

Where these figures come from

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.

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