Dell PowerEdge R440 Servers

Chassis options

The R440 shipped in three front-bay configurations. The chassis cannot be converted from one to another after purchase, so choose by how many drives you need and what type.

All three variants take an optional BOSS card with two M.2 SATA SSDs for a mirrored boot volume, keeping the front bays free for data.

Processors

The R440 takes first-generation (Skylake-SP, 2017) and second-generation (Cascade Lake, 2019) Intel Xeon Scalable processors in two LGA3647 sockets, with a processor power ceiling of 105 W, which is what separates it from the R640. In practice that means Bronze and Silver parts plus the lower-power Gold 5xxx SKUs; the high-core-count Gold 6xxx and Platinum parts are not supported. Both CPUs in a system must be identical. [VERIFY: 105 W ceiling and which CPUs you stock for this model]

Second-generation Xeon Scalable (Cascade Lake)

First-generation Xeon Scalable (Skylake-SP)

Silver processors cap memory at 2400 MT/s and Gold 5xxx at 2666 MT/s regardless of the DIMMs fitted. If you need more cores or faster memory than these parts allow, the R640 is the platform to buy.

Memory

Sixteen DDR4 DIMM slots, eight per processor across six channels (two channels carry two DIMMs, four carry one). Registered (RDIMM) and load-reduced (LRDIMM) modules are supported; they cannot be mixed in the same system. With one CPU installed, only the eight slots on that side are usable.

For best performance populate all six channels per CPU: 6 or 12 DIMMs in total for a dual-CPU system before filling the remaining four slots. Memory runs at the lower of the DIMM rating and the CPU limit, so 2666 MT/s modules on a Silver 4214 run at 2400 MT/s.

Storage and RAID

Drive support depends on the backplane fitted at the factory. All backplanes are hot-plug. The controller options are:

Supported drive types are 12 Gb/s SAS and 6 Gb/s SATA in both hard disk and SSD form, plus up to four U.2 NVMe drives on the 10-bay NVMe backplane. Drives need the correct Dell 14th generation caddy: the 2.5" and 3.5" carriers are not interchangeable with 11th or 12th generation units.

Networking and expansion

Onboard networking is a dual-port Broadcom 5720 1 GbE LOM. The R440 has no NDC slot, so faster networking goes into one of the two PCIe Gen3 slots (one x16 low-profile and one x8 low-profile in the standard riser). Common choices:

• Intel X550-T2 dual-port 10 GbE BASE-T
• Intel X710-DA2 dual-port 10 GbE SFP+
• Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx dual-port 25 GbE SFP28
• Broadcom 5719 quad-port 1 GbE

With only two slots, a typical build uses one for the PERC (the H730P and H740P are card form on this platform) and one for a network adapter. GPUs and Fibre Channel HBAs alongside a 10 GbE card need the R640 or R740.

Power supplies

Two hot-plug redundant power supply bays, configured 1+1, with 550 W Platinum units; a single cabled 450 W supply was also offered on entry configurations. A dual-CPU system with a full memory load and a PERC sits comfortably within 550 W. Both supplies in a system should be the same rating.

Management

Every R440 includes iDRAC9 with a dedicated management port. The Express licence covers remote power, health monitoring and basic alerts; the Enterprise licence adds the virtual console, virtual media, remote firmware updates through the Lifecycle Controller and the full Redfish API, which is what most buyers actually want for a server they do not visit. Enterprise licences can be added to any unit. The R440 also supports OpenManage Enterprise for fleet management.

Physical specification

Supported operating systems

Windows Server 2016, 2019 and 2022; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8 and 9; SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and 15; Ubuntu Server LTS releases; VMware ESXi 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 and 8.0; Citrix Hypervisor; and Proxmox VE, which is unsupported by Dell but widely deployed on this platform. Confirm your hypervisor's hardware compatibility list before buying if you need vendor support.

Buying a refurbished R440 from ServerDove

Every unit we sell has been through full hardware diagnostics and a burn-in run: memory tested across every installed DIMM, controller and drive health verified, both power supplies load-tested, and the management controller reset and confirmed reachable. BIOS is returned to defaults and the firmware brought to a stable release. Units carry a six-month warranty and are held in Doha, so a replacement part is a short drive away rather than a shipment from overseas. [VERIFY: same testing and warranty wording as the R640 page]

Because the R440 is now past the manufacturer's mainstream support window, we are also the practical route to keeping one in service: we stock the caddies, DIMMs, controllers, rails and power supplies it needs, and our hardware support plans cover units the manufacturer no longer will. [VERIFY: parts stocked for this model]

If you need a specific configuration that is not listed, tell us the CPU, memory and drive layout you want and we will quote a build from stock. Custom configurations are usually ready within two working days. [VERIFY: lead time]