The Dell PowerEdge R360 is a 1U, single-socket Intel Xeon E-2400 rack server with DDR5 and PCIe Gen5, for near-edge and SMB applications.

The PowerEdge R360 is a 1U, single-socket rack server for near-edge and SMB applications. It is intended to deliver maximum value and is powered by Intel Xeon E-2400 series processors, DDR5 memory, and PCIe Gen5 support.

The PowerEdge R360 improves over the preceding PowerEdge R350 by offering a more powerful CPU, greater memory bandwidth, superior boot storage (BOSS N-1 versus BOSS S-2), and support for one 40-60W NVIDIA A2 entry data center GPU. (The PowerEdge R350 didn’t support GPUs.)

The PowerEdge R360 supports four 3.5-inch or eight 2.5-inch drives and two PCIe Gen5 slots for storage and expansion. The tower version of this server, 4.5U PowerEdge T360, offers more storage with eight 3.5-inch drives and four PCIe slots (three Gen4 and one Gen5). The PowerEdge R360 also offers two hardware RAID options, leveraging the PERC H355 or H755 through a dedicated riser.

Dell PowerEdge R360 Specifications

Dell PowerEdge R360 Design

The PowerEdge R360 is a 1U rack server with standard dimensions (1.68 by 18.97 by 24.57 inches (HWD, with bezel)). Front ports include a Micro-AB USB port for iDRAC Direct and one USB 2.0. A security bezel to prevent access to these ports is optional.

Around the back is a dedicated iDRAC Ethernet jack, another USB 2.0, one USB 3.2 Gen1, and VGA and Serial ports. Internally, the PowerEdge R360 has a single USB 3.2 Gen1 port. Also visible back here is the BOSS-N1 slot for dedicated M.2 boot drives, which means regular storage doesn’t need to be used for this purpose. The server’s twin power supplies are also visible from the rear; it sports a pair of 600W Platinum or 700W Titanium hot-swap redundant units.

Looking inside, the PowerEdge R360’s basic layout puts the CPU at the rear; even the top-end Xeon E-2488 makes do with a passive cooler. The CPU has a TDP of just 95 watts. Four DDR5 DIMM slots to its left supports 128GB of RAM (4x 32GB). Registered (ECC) memory is not supported. The twin PCIe expansion slots are next to the CPU heatsink.

Four simple-swap fans along the centerline provide air cooling. The airflow shroud inside the chassis directs air across the CPU, although it does have a single cutout to direct air across installed PCIe hardware.

The drive bays are ahead of these; the PowerEdge R360 accommodates four 3.5-inch or eight 2.5-inch bays. Dell offers several RAID controllers and RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, or 10 configurations from the factory.

Dell PowerEdge R360 Versus PowerEdge R260

The PowerEdge R360 is essentially a full-size version of the short-depth PowerEdge R260. Both these servers are intended for near-edge and SMB applications.

Dell also sells tower versions of these servers; the PowerEdge T360 (for which we’ll have a review soon) is the tower version of the PowerEdge R360 and supports additional storage drives and expansion slots. There’s also the lighter-weight PowerEdge T160. These servers all focus on SMB applications and friendly storage options rather than massive amounts of CPU or memory, with one CPU socket and four DIMM slots.

Dell PowerEdge R360 Management and Maintenance

Check out our PowerEdge R260 review for an in-depth look at Dell’s integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC). iDRAC provides comprehensive remote management capabilities, allowing administrators to monitor, update, and troubleshoot the server regardless of location.

Dell PowerEdge R360 Performance

We tested the PowerEdge R360 configured as follows:

• Windows Server 2022 Standard
• Intel Xeon E-2488 (8-core/16-thread)
• 128GB DDR5-3600 ECC
• 2x 480GB SSD RAID 1 (OS); 16TB 3.5-inch hard drive
• Nvidia A2 GPU

Our configuration has the most powerful CPU, the maximum amount of memory, and a GPU, so it’s as capable as it can be. Since storage drive configurations can vary widely, most of our testing will focus on the CPU.

In our performance tests, the PowerEdge R360 will compete with the PowerEdge R260, which we tested with the same CPU but half the RAM (64GB). Our other comparable is the PowerEdge T360 tower, which has a more moderate Xeon E-2414 chip (4-core/4-thread) and 32GB of RAM.

Blender 4.0 CPU

Blender is an open-source 3D modeling application. This benchmark was run using the Blender Benchmark utility. The score is samples per minute, with higher being better. Surprisingly, the PowerEdge R260 showed much better performance than the PowerEdge R360. Predictably, the quad-core PowerEdge T360 wasn’t in contention.

Blackmagic RAW CPU Speed Test

We have also started running Blackmagic’s RAW speed test, which tests video playback. These servers likely wouldn’t be used for video playback, but the PowerEdge R260 again proved faster than the PowerEdge R360 here.

7-Zip Compression

The built-in memory benchmark in the popular 7-Zip utility shows a closer delta between the PowerEdge R360 and the PowerEdge R260, though the latter still had the edge. The PowerEdge T360 was again nowhere close, with a vastly inferior CPU.

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

We run the popular Blackmagic Disk Speed Test against the system’s BOSS RAID1 boot SSD.

UL Procyon AI Computer Vision

UL’s Procyon estimates a workstation’s performance for professional apps. Though this test ideally runs on a GPU, we run it once on the CPU for our server reviews. The PowerEdge R360 did as well as could be expected, perhaps edging ahead of the PowerEdge R260 since it has more RAM.

y-cruncher

y-cruncher is a multi-threaded and scalable program that can compute Pi and other mathematical constants to trillions of digits. Since its launch in 2009, it has become a popular benchmarking and stress-testing application for overclockers and hardware enthusiasts. These servers aren’t ideal for CPU-heavy applications, but the PowerEdge R360 did respectably enough for its eight-core CPU.

Geekbench 6

Geekbench 6 is a cross-platform benchmark that measures overall system performance. The Geekbench Browser allows you to compare any system to it. The single-core scores were close between all the units, though the PowerEdge R260 won out in multi-core, as we’ve come to expect.

Cinebench R23

This benchmark uses all CPU cores and threads to generate an overall score. The outcome here was similar to what we saw in Geekbench 6.

Cinebench 2024

We also started running the latest Cinebench test. The results here are similar to those in Geekbench 6.

Conclusion

Dell’s PowerEdge R360 is a promising value for SMB and near-edge applications thanks to its affordable components and versatile configurations. The most significant improvement over the PowerEdge R350 is its ability to house a single NVIDIA A2 GPU, which broadens its appeal to AI applications. It also improves on its predecessor with a faster Xeon CPU, superior memory bandwidth, and a more advanced BOSS N-1 storage drive configuration for the operating system.

As always, Dell includes its popular and easy-to-use iDRAC management software. A short-depth version of this server, the PowerEdge R260, is also available, as is a tower version (PowerEdge T360) that supports more expansion. The PowerEdge R360 offers commendable value for SMBs seeking a lightweight, value-oriented server.

Dell PowerEdge R360 Product Page

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