The XE9780L is a liquid-cooled compute node, 3 OU high, built to mount in Dell’s IR7044 or IR7050 ORV3 cabinets, and it takes its power and coolant from the rack. Each node pairs two Xeon 6 processors with an eight-GPU HGX B300 or B200 board. Here are the per-node figures, the rack and CDU requirements, and both host variants — XE9780L and XE9780LAP.
32 × DDR5 RDIMM · up to Not stated as a system total
Drive bays
Up to 16 · 3 drive-bay layouts
Expansion
4 × PCIe · 1 × OCP 3.0
GPUs
Up to 8 · 2 listed
Boot
BOSS-N1
Management
iDRAC10
01 — Overview
The XE9780L at a glance
Our read of Dell’s documentation: where the XE9780L is strong, and the limits worth knowing before you spec one.
Strengths
+Packs the same eight-GPU HGX B300 or B200 board as the 10U air-cooled XE9780 into a sled 140.5 mm tall.
+Two hosts in one design: Xeon 6 6700P-series with 32 DIMM slots (XE9780L), or 6900P-series with up to 128 cores and 24 slots (XE9780LAP).
+Direct liquid cooling for the processors and the GPU module, and every entry in Dell’s thermal matrices is supported on standard fans at 35°C.
+No power supplies in the node: a 33 kW ORV3 shelf of six 5.5 kW modules feeds the rack, and each node draws its power through Barklip connectors.
+Drives, OCP card, PCIe and OSFP modules and both iDRAC ports are on the front; the rear holds only fans, coolant couplings and power connectors.
Watch-outs
!Not a standalone server: Dell documents it as a node for its IR7044 and IR7050 ORV3 racks, and it draws power and coolant from the rack.
!Coolant is required: Dell’s table asks for 24.1 LPM per B300 node at a 40°C supply through an in-rack CDU, or 21.8 LPM through an in-row CDU.
!Many options are future releases, among them the 86-core 6787P, 64 GB and 256 GB RDIMMs, MRDIMMs, U.2 storage, most OCP cards and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
!Only the B300 build has a published weight (107.2 kg), acoustic profile and coolant-flow table; Dell gives none of these for B200.
!The guide contradicts itself on B200 slot count, UPI speed, OCP port speed and two processor TDPs, so exact builds need confirming with Dell.
Processors10 SKUs
Cores / CPU48–128
DIMM slots32
Drive layouts3
Max bays16
GPUsup to 8
Rack power parts2 · to 33,000 W
02 — Processors
10 supported processors, mapped
One guide covers two hosts. The XE9780L uses the LGA 4710 socket and the same four Xeon 6 6700P-series parts as the air-cooled XE9780 (48–86 cores, 330–350 W); the XE9780LAP moves to LGA 7529 and six 6900P-series parts from 72 to 128 cores at up to 500 W. Both use direct liquid cooling modules on the processors. Every processor in Dell’s thermal tables is supported on standard fans at 35°C, but those tables pair the 6787P and all six 6900P-series parts with B300 only.
Processor landscape — cores × TDP
10 SKUs · 2 families
Xeon 6 P-core 4Xeon 6 6900P 6Bubble 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 6 6980P
128 / 256
2 GHz
504 MB
500 W
3.9
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6978P
120 / 240
2.1 GHz
504 MB
500 W
4.2
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6972P
96 / 192
2.4 GHz
480 MB
500 W
5.2
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6952P
96 / 192
2.1 GHz
480 MB
400 W
4.2
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6787P
86 / 172
2 GHz
336 MB
350 W
4.1
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6962P
72 / 144
2.7 GHz
432 MB
500 W
6.9
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6960P
72 / 144
2.7 GHz
432 MB
500 W
6.9
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6767P
64 / 128
2.4 GHz
336 MB
350 W
5.5
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6776P
64 / 128
2.3 GHz
336 MB
350 W
5.5
DDR5-6400
Intel Xeon 6 6747P
48 / 96
2.7 GHz
288 MB
330 W
6.9
DDR5-6400
Four parts carry Dell’s “future release” asterisk: the 6787P, 6962P, 6960P and 6952P.
The processor chapter gives up to four UPI links on the XE9780L and six on the XE9780LAP, both at 24 GT/s; the overview table says up to 32 GT/s.
Two parts differ between tables: the thermal matrix shows the 6747P at 350 W and 64 cores (processor table: 330 W, 48 cores) and the 6952P at 450 W (processor table: 400 W).
At platform level Dell lists up to 160 PCIe Gen5 lanes per system and speeds up to 3.6 GHz; the processor chapter also lists CXL 2.0.
03 — Memory
32 DIMM slots, 16 per processor
Memory is where the two variants part company. The XE9780L has 32 DDR5 RDIMM slots — eight channels with two DIMMs each per processor — while the XE9780LAP has 24, on twelve channels at one DIMM each, and adds MRDIMMs rated at 8800 MT/s as a future option.
Capacity with every slot filled
by DIMM size
Rated memory speed
from the processor table
Processor family
Up to
Xeon 6 P-core
6400 MT/s
Xeon 6 6900P
6400 MT/s
At launch both variants take 96 GB and 128 GB RDIMMs at 6400 MT/s; 64 GB (XE9780L), 256 GB and the 96 / 128 GB MRDIMMs (XE9780LAP) are future items.
Dell gives no system maximum. Its processor tables show a memory capacity of 4 TB against each 6700P-series part and 3 TB against each 6900P-series part; 128 GB modules in every slot give 4 TB on the XE9780L (32 × 128 GB) and 3 TB on the XE9780LAP (24 × 128 GB).
Only one-DIMM-per-channel speeds are documented — 6400 MT/s for RDIMMs and 8800 MT/s for MRDIMMs — so the XE9780L’s two-per-channel speed is not stated.
The XE9780L DIMM thermal table also lists 256 GB modules, which its supported-DIMM table does not; Dell’s acoustic reference build uses 32 × 96 GB.
04 — Storage
3 drive-bay layouts, up to 16 bays
Every drive is at the front and direct-attached: sixteen E1.S Gen5 NVMe slots arranged as four positions of four, with no PERC, no software RAID and no rear bays. An eight-drive U.2 Gen5 layout is listed for a future release.
Headline layouts
front panel view
Front panel
Four front storage positions, each holding four E1.S Gen5 NVMe drives, attached directly with no PERC.
SAS/SATANVMeSAS/SATA + NVMe
Controllers & boot
BOSS-N1 — Boot. HWRAID 0/1, 2 x M.2 NVMe SSDs; internal (front item 1). Dedicated PERC: N/A; Software RAID: N/A; internal/external storage controllers: N/A - all drive configs C01-C03 list PERC Qty 0 / Storage Controller N/A (NVMe direct-attached)
BOSS-N1 (2 x M.2 NVMe SSD, HWRAID 0/1, internal, dedicated heat sinks and thermal pads; acoustic config lists 1 x 17G BOSS 960 GB) — boot
Launch E1.S drives are Gen5 at 3.84 TB or 7.68 TB (read-intensive, mixed-use, enterprise and data-centre RI types); the future U.2 drives reach 15.36 TB read-intensive or 6.4 TB mixed-use.
Sixteen 7.68 TB E1.S drives give a node 122.88 TB raw.
Boot is an internal BOSS-N1 with two M.2 NVMe SSDs in hardware RAID 0 or 1, fitted with dedicated heat sinks and thermal pads.
Dell notes that E1.S and U.2 throughput also depends on the storage controller, and requires blanks in empty E1.S, OCP and PCIe positions.
Every documented layout
3 with drive bays
2.5-inch3.5-inchEDSFF (E1.S / E3.S)
05 — Accelerators & I/O
GPUs, PCIe and networking
Each node carries one eight-GPU NVIDIA HGX board, and liquid does the heavy cooling: rear quick connectors 1–4 serve the GPU module, and Dell’s B200 tray photo shows direct liquid cooling modules on the GPUs and a cold plate on the NVSwitch, beside a PCIe switch baseboard, an HGX management controller and a ConnectX-7 NVLink bridge. One board per node, B300 NVL8 or B200, each carrying eight SXM6 GPUs (270 GB at 1100 W, or 180 GB at 1000 W) on NVLink. B300 nodes add embedded ConnectX-8 NICs with front OSFP modules.
Dell’s PCIe configuration table has a single entry, “no riser” with two processors (the front-view tables still describe the slots as risers), and all expansion is on the front of the sled. The headline is up to four Gen5 x16 full-height, half-length slots plus one OCP 3.0 card at x16.
Network adapters Dell lists
10 options
Adapter
Ports
Form
NVIDIA 2 x 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
2 × 100GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 2 x 10 GbE BT (base-T) OCP 3.0
2 × 10GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 4 x 25 GbE SFP OCP 3.0 (*future)
4 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 2 x 10 GbE BT (base-T) OCP 3.0 (*future)
2 × 10GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 2 x 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0 (*future)
2 × 100GbE
OCP 3.0
Intel 2 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0 (*future)
2 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
NVIDIA 2 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0 (*future)
2 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Broadcom 2 x 25 GbE SFP28 OCP 3.0 (*future)
2 × 25GbE
OCP 3.0
Embedded NVIDIA ConnectX-8 NICs with OSFP modules (B300 configuration front view items 2 and 6; acoustic config lists 8 x CX8 in PCI 1 and 2 x CX7 in PCI 2)
×
embedded
Front I/O board 2 x RJ45 1 GbE dedicated iDRAC Ethernet ports (primary + failover)
2 × 1GbE
embedded
In the B300 node the front shows OSFP modules for the embedded ConnectX-8 NICs flanking PCIe slots 5–6 and 7–8, and Dell marks the outer positions as invalid for PCIe cards.
Dell’s B200 front view labels PCIe slots 1–6 and 7–12, and its thermal table pairs B200 with twelve full-height cards, although the feature list says up to four; we confirm the slot count for B200 nodes on the quote.
The OCP bay supports NC-SI and iDRAC shared-LOM redirect; the OCP feature table gives a 25 GbE maximum port speed, yet 100 GbE cards are listed. Only the NVIDIA 2 × 100 GbE and Intel 2 × 10 GbE BASE-T cards were available at launch.
Two U.2 CEM devices can sit in the PCIe expansion slots, and Dell warns that damage from GPUs, NICs or other PCIe devices it has not validated voids the system warranty.
06 — Power & cooling
No supplies of its own — powered by the rack
The node has no power supplies of its own. It takes +50 V from the rack’s 21-inch ORV3 power shelf — six hot-swap 5.5 kW modules giving 33 kW at rack level with N+1 support — through Barklip connectors on the GPU and CPU modules. For power-supply requirements Dell points to the IR7000 Installation and Service Manual, and it gives no per-node wattage.
AC
The shelf is Titanium-class and accepts 180–350 V AC at 47–63 Hz (26 A), in star or delta connection for 346–415 V or 200–240 V line-to-line.
Modules, the power-management controller and the shelf chassis must not be mixed across types, and PSUs from different vendors must not share a system.
The shelf copes with pulse loads, but its average draw over any 10-second window must stay within its rated full load.
The XE9780L does not support a user power cap, and Dell still lists the shelf’s heat dissipation as TBD.
The guide’s generic power-tools table (Table 25) still lists 6+6 full and A/B-grid PSU redundancy, whereas its power-shelf description gives N+1 across six modules.
07 — Management, security & OS
Run it, secure it, choose the OS
Management
iDRAC10 (Datacenter licence adds GPU/DPU and air and liquid cooling management)
iDRAC Direct over USB 2.0 Type-C
Two front 1 GbE iDRAC RJ45 ports (primary and failover)
iDRAC RESTful API with Redfish
RACADM CLI and IPMI
iDRAC Service Module
OpenManage Enterprise with Power Manager, Services and Update Manager
OME APEX AIOps Observability
Red Hat Ansible modules and Terraform providers
Security
Secure Enterprise Key Management
Secure Component Verification
System Lockdown via iDRAC10
TPM (TPM 2.0 specification)
Operating systems
Canonical Ubuntu Server LTS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (future release)
08 — Compare
XE9680L → XE9780L / LAP
Dell compares the XE9780L with the 4U, liquid-cooled XE9680L. The biggest change is architectural: the XE9680L was a self-contained rack server with its own supplies, while the XE9780L is a node that depends on the IR7000 rack.
HGX B300 NVL8 270 GB, 1100 W or HGX B200 180 GB, 1000 W
Memory
32 DDR5 slots · up to 5600 MT/s
32 (L) or 24 (LAP) DDR5 slots · up to 6400 MT/s
Front bays
8 × 2.5" NVMe, direct-attached
16 × E1.S NVMe · 8 × U.2 NVMe (future)
Internal controllers
PERC12 (SAS4/SATA)
None
PCIe
10 × Gen5 x16 FHHL + 2 for NIC/SmartNIC/DPU
Up to 4 × Gen5 x16 FHHL
Networking
OCP x8 Mezz 3.0
1 × OCP 3.0 (x16)
Power
6 × 2800 W (H200) or 6 × 3000 W (B200) Titanium in the server
6 × 5500 W modules in the rack power shelf (33 kW)
Form factor
4U rack server
3 OU node in IR7044 (44 OU) or IR7050 (50 OU)
Size
174.3 mm high · 1037.57 mm deep with bezel
140.5 mm high · 537 mm wide · 1047.95 mm deep with fan
Weight
91.63 kg (H200) · 95.6 kg (B200)
107.2 kg (B300, 16 × E1.S)
Management
iDRAC9
iDRAC10
Source: Dell PowerEdge XE9780L/XE9780LAP Technical Guide (Rev. A01, January 2026), Table 2 (the table title names the XE9680; its column is the XE9680L).
The XE9780L family side by side
The XE9780L shares its GPU boards and 6700P-series processors with the air-cooled 10U XE9780. The XE9785L is the AMD EPYC 9005 node for the same IR7044/IR7050 racks and adds an AMD Instinct MI355X option; the 4U XE9680L is the predecessor in Dell’s table; and the XE8712 is a 1 OU Grace-based compute tray for the IR7000 family.
This modelSiblings and successorEach value from that model’s own verified spec file · bars scale per column
Four per-node builds drawn from Dell’s XE9780L guide. Each loads into the configurator ready to adjust, using only parts permitted for this node; rack, CDU and power-shelf infrastructure is scoped separately on the quote, since the node has no supplies of its own.
Foundation-model training
B300 liquid-cooled training node
Its memory matches Dell’s “B300 typical” acoustic configuration — two Xeon 6 processors with 32 × 96 GB — and every E1.S slot is filled. The 6767P gives 64 cores at 2.4 GHz, and the NVIDIA 100 GbE OCP card is one of the two Dell offered at launch.
2 × Xeon 6 6767P — 64 cores @ 2.4 GHz, 350 W each
NVIDIA HGX B300 NVL8 board — 8 × 270 GB GPUs, 1100 W each
32 × 96 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 3 TB
16 × 7.68 TB E1.S Gen5 NVMe — 122.88 TB raw
BOSS-N1 boot module (2 × M.2 NVMe)
Embedded ConnectX-8 NICs with OSFP modules
NVIDIA 2 × 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
Powered from the rack’s 33 kW ORV3 shelf — no PSUs in the node
Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
Needs an IR7044 or IR7050 rack with coolant from an in-rack CDU (24.1 LPM per node at a 40°C supply) or an in-row CDU (21.8 LPM). Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a future option.
Two 128-core 6980P processors give 256 cores for tokenising, loading and pre-processing data beside the GPUs. The XE9780LAP runs twelve channels at one DIMM each, so 24 × 128 GB fills every slot for 3 TB.
2 × Xeon 6 6980P — 128 cores @ 2 GHz, 500 W each
NVIDIA HGX B300 NVL8 board — 8 × 270 GB GPUs
24 × 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 3 TB, one per channel
16 × 3.84 TB E1.S Gen5 NVMe — 61.44 TB raw
BOSS-N1 boot module (2 × M.2 NVMe)
NVIDIA 2 × 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
Rack-fed power and liquid cooling (IR7000)
Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
The configurator treats the XE9780L and XE9780LAP as one model; this build uses the LAP’s 24-slot layout, so keep 6900P-series builds at 24 DIMMs. Dell clears all six 6900P parts with B300 on standard fans at 35°C.
Dell lists AI inferencing and fine-tuning alongside training for this node. A B200 board holds 1.44 TB of GPU memory (8 × 180 GB), and the 48-core 6747P has the highest base clock among the XE9780L parts, 2.7 GHz.
2 × Xeon 6 6747P — 48 cores @ 2.7 GHz, 330 W each
NVIDIA HGX B200 board — 8 × 180 GB GPUs, 1000 W each
16 × 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 2 TB
8 × 3.84 TB E1.S Gen5 NVMe — 30.72 TB raw
BOSS-N1 boot module (2 × M.2 NVMe)
NVIDIA 2 × 100 GbE QSFP56 OCP 3.0
Rack-fed power and liquid cooling (IR7000)
Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
Dell publishes no weight, acoustic or coolant-flow data for the B200 node, and its B200 DIMM thermal table covers 96 GB and 128 GB modules only. The B200 PCIe slot count is confirmed on the quote.
Where training data sits on a parallel file system, Dell’s C01 configuration shows no E1.S drives in any of the four front positions, leaving local storage to the BOSS-N1 boot module. Filling all 32 slots with 128 GB modules gives the XE9780L 4 TB.
2 × Xeon 6 6776P — 64 cores @ 2.3 GHz, 350 W each
NVIDIA HGX B300 NVL8 board — 8 × 270 GB GPUs
32 × 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM — 4 TB
No E1.S drives fitted (Dell configuration C01)
BOSS-N1 boot module (2 × M.2 NVMe)
Embedded ConnectX-8 NICs with OSFP modules
Intel 2 × 10 GbE BASE-T OCP 3.0
Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
The 4 TB fill uses two DIMMs per channel, for which Dell’s guide gives no speed. Only the NVIDIA 100 GbE and Intel 10 GbE BASE-T OCP cards were available at launch.
180–350 V AC, 47–63 Hz, 26 A · star or delta, 346–415 V or 200–240 V line-to-line
Ports & video
Front
USB 3.0 · USB 2.0 Type-C (iDRAC Direct) · Mini-DisplayPort · 2 × iDRAC RJ45 · no rear ports
Internal
1 × USB 3.0
Video
Integrated Matrox G200, 16 MB
Environment
Operating range
10–35°C (ASHRAE A2) · DPUs up to A2
Acoustics
Category 6 (B300 typical build) · unattended data centre
11 — FAQ
XE9780L questions, answered from the documentation
What is the difference between the XE9780L and XE9780LAP?
They share a sled, GPU boards and cooling but differ in host. The XE9780L takes Xeon 6 6700P-series parts (up to 86 cores) on LGA 4710 with 32 DIMM slots; the XE9780LAP takes 6900P-series parts (up to 128 cores, 500 W) on LGA 7529 with 24 slots, twelve channels and future MRDIMM support.
Can the XE9780L go in a standard rack?
Dell documents it as a 3 OU node for its IR7044 and IR7050 Open Rack V3 cabinets, mounted on L-bracket static rails and fed power and coolant by the rack. It has no power supplies of its own; the rail chapter repeats Dell’s generic ReadyRails text for 4-post and 2-post racks, but the node still needs the rack’s power shelf and coolant, so we quote it as part of an IR7000 rack build.
What liquid cooling does the XE9780L need?
A coolant supply from a CDU. For a B300 node Dell’s table asks for at least 1.0 LPM per kW with an in-rack CDU — 24.1 LPM per node at a 40°C supply, falling to 12.0 LPM at 32°C and 28°C — or 1.5 LPM per kW with an in-row CDU, 21.8 LPM per node across 28–40°C. The guide gives no flow figures for B200 nodes.
How is the XE9780L powered?
From the rack, not the node. A 21-inch ORV3 power shelf with six hot-swap 5.5 kW modules supplies 33 kW at rack level and +50 V to each node through Barklip connectors. Dell does not state a per-node power figure in the guide and refers sizing to the IR7000 manual.
Which GPUs does the XE9780L support?
An eight-GPU NVIDIA HGX board per node — either the B300 NVL8, whose GPUs have 270 GB each and a 1100 W rating, or the B200 at 180 GB and 1000 W per GPU; both are SXM6 parts joined by NVLink. B300 nodes also carry embedded ConnectX-8 NICs with OSFP modules on the front.
What is the maximum memory of the XE9780L?
Dell gives no system total. Filling the XE9780L’s 32 slots with 128 GB RDIMMs gives 4 TB, and the XE9780LAP’s 24 slots give 3 TB, matching the memory-capacity figures in Dell’s processor tables. Larger 256 GB modules and MRDIMMs are listed as future XE9780LAP options.
What storage does the XE9780L have?
Sixteen front E1.S Gen5 NVMe slots, direct-attached with no PERC or software RAID, using 3.84 TB or 7.68 TB drives at launch. An eight-bay U.2 Gen5 layout is a future option, and boot uses an internal BOSS-N1 with two M.2 NVMe SSDs.
How does the XE9780L differ from the air-cooled XE9780?
Both carry the same HGX B300 or B200 boards and 6700P-series processors. The XE9780 is a self-contained 10U server with twelve 3200 W supplies and fan cooling, weighing up to 163.20 kg; the XE9780L is a 140.5 mm-high liquid-cooled node that relies on the IR7000 rack for power and coolant, and adds the 6900P-series LAP option.
What changed from the XE9680L?
Dell’s table moves from 5th Gen Xeon Scalable (64 cores) and HGX H200 at 700 W to Xeon 6 and HGX B300 or B200 at up to 1100 W. Memory speed rises from 5600 to 6400 MT/s, storage switches from eight 2.5-inch NVMe bays to sixteen E1.S, and the in-server supplies give way to the rack power shelf.
Is the Dell PowerEdge XE9780L end of life?
Not according to any published date: the January 2026 guide (Rev. A01) names no date for the end of sales or support, and many of its parts are still marked as future releases. Dell’s PowerEdge XE servers come with a standard three-year hardware warranty, and any lifecycle dates Dell releases later will appear in our end-of-life checker.
Sources & verification
Where these figures come from
Dell PowerEdge XE9780L/XE9780LAP Technical Guide (Rev. A01, January 2026) — Tables 1–2 (technologies; comparison with the XE9680L), 3–8 (front, rear, dimensions, weight), 10–18 (processors, memory, drives, storage configurations), 19–24 (OCP, PCIe), 26–27 (power shelf, acoustics), 28–31 (iDRAC, NIC and USB ports), 33–39 (environment, thermal matrices, coolant flow); Figures 1, 4, 5, 7, 8 (images and internals).
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.
