Are your servers new or refurbished — and how do you prove it?

We supply both new and graded refurbished equipment — never refurbished sold as new. Condition grade is stated per unit on every quote. New units are factory-sealed with intact seals and carry a 3-year warranty; refurbished units carry a 1-year warranty, with terms confirmed in writing per order. Refurbished units are professionally refurbished and supplied by condition grade, with cosmetic condition, included accessories and warranty terms stated per unit. Every Service Tag or serial number is verifiable on the manufacturer website.

Can you ship GPU and storage servers to my country?

We export to 60+ countries across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, with door-to-door freight, customs documentation and insurance handled by our team.

How fast will I receive a quotation?

Most configuration lists receive a detailed quotation within one business day. For complex deployments, our engineers confirm compatibility and provide options before pricing.

Do you support system integrators and resellers?

Yes — system integrators, IT resellers, project suppliers and tender bidders are our primary customers. We offer multi-brand consolidation, neutral configuration advice and repeat-order account support.

How do I pay, and what terms are available?

We accept international bank transfer (T/T) in USD. Standard orders are confirmed against a proforma invoice, while established repeat accounts and project bidders can discuss agreed payment terms in advance.

What is the lead time for delivery to the Middle East or Southeast Asia?

In-stock configurations are normally built and tested within a few business days, followed by door-to-door air or sea freight depending on the destination. We provide a clear timeline and tracking once the order is confirmed.

How is warranty and after-sales support handled overseas?

New servers and sealed new-old-stock units carry a 3-year warranty, with the service terms and RMA route for your destination confirmed in writing. Refurbished units carry our warranty at the grade and term stated on the quotation, with the RMA route confirmed per order. Each Service Tag or serial number is verifiable on the manufacturer website, and condition and warranty status are reported as they are.

Can you build a fully custom configuration to my specification?

Yes. Send your required CPU, memory, drives, accelerators, power and networking preferences — or simply describe the workload and target budget. Our engineers specify, assemble and burn-in test the complete system before shipment.

PowerEdge Storage Options: E3.S vs U.2 vs SAS SSD

By the ServerBastion solutions team — Beijing Xinchuan Technology Co., Ltd. · Specs checked against Dell official spec sheets, October 2026.

For a PowerEdge deployment in late 2026, the choice between E3.S, U.2 NVMe, and 2.5″ SAS/SATA SSD comes down to performance needs and density: E3.S is a high-density NVMe form factor for boot, caching, and hot data (up to 16x E3.S Gen5 in an R760 or R770), U.2 is a mainstream NVMe option for databases and VM storage (up to 24x U.2 2.5″ in a 2U server), and 2.5″ SAS/SATA SSD is the cost-effective choice for general-purpose workloads. This guide covers performance, use cases, RAID/HBA selection, and BOSS-N1 boot drives across 16G and 17G PowerEdge platforms.

Storage form factors: E3.S vs U.2 vs 2.5″ SAS/SATA

Three NVMe/SSD form factors dominate PowerEdge storage:

E3.S: a high-density NVMe form factor (similar to M.2 but hot-swappable in a 2.5″ bay). Supports NVMe PCIe Gen4/Gen5, up to 15.36 TB per drive. E3.S is designed for boot, caching, and software-defined storage (vSAN, StorPool, Ceph). Available in 15mm and 9.5mm thickness variants.
U.2: a mainstream 2.5″ NVMe form factor (same physical size as SAS/SATA SSD but uses NVMe protocol). Supports NVMe PCIe Gen4/Gen5, up to 15.36 TB per drive. U.2 is the standard choice for databases, VM storage, and high-IOPS workloads.
2.5″ SAS/SATA SSD: the legacy form factor, supports SAS 12Gb/s or SATA 6Gb/s. Up to 7.68 TB per drive (SAS) or 3.84 TB (SATA). Lower cost than NVMe, suitable for general-purpose workloads, boot, and archival.

Drive options by platform and generation are on our Dell server hard drives page; the controller side — which PERC or HBA exposes those drives, and how much cache it needs — is on Dell RAID controllers.

Key differences:

Form factor	Interface	Max capacity per drive	Typical use
E3.S	NVMe PCIe Gen4/Gen5	15.36 TB	Boot, caching, software-defined storage
U.2	NVMe PCIe Gen4/Gen5	15.36 TB	Databases, VM storage, high-IOPS
2.5″ SAS SSD	SAS 12Gb/s	7.68 TB	General-purpose, boot, archival
2.5″ SATA SSD	SATA 6Gb/s	3.84 TB	Low-cost boot, archival

Performance comparison: IOPS, latency, and bandwidth

NVMe (E3.S and U.2) is 5–10× faster than SAS/SATA:

IOPS (input/output operations per second): NVMe drives deliver 500k–1M IOPS per drive (random read); SAS SSD delivers 50k–100k IOPS; SATA SSD delivers 50k–80k IOPS.
Latency: NVMe latency is 10–20 microseconds; SAS SSD latency is 50–100 microseconds; SATA SSD latency is 50–200 microseconds.
Bandwidth: NVMe PCIe Gen4 delivers 7 GB/s per drive; Gen5 delivers 14 GB/s per drive. SAS 12Gb/s delivers 1.2 GB/s per drive; SATA 6Gb/s delivers 600 MB/s per drive.

Practical implications:

For databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL): NVMe (U.2 or E3.S) reduces query latency by 3–5× vs SAS SSD. For large databases (>1 TB), NVMe is the clear winner.
For virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM): NVMe improves VM boot times and application launch times. For VDI (virtual desktops), NVMe reduces login storms and improves user experience.
For object storage (Ceph, MinIO): NVMe is overkill for bulk storage, but useful for metadata and caching tiers. Use SAS/SATA HDD for capacity and NVMe for hot data.

Use cases: boot, caching, VM storage, databases, object storage

Match the form factor to the workload:

Boot drives (OS, hypervisor): E3.S or U.2 NVMe for fast boot times (10–20 seconds vs 30–60 seconds for SAS). SATA SSD is acceptable for low-cost deployments. BOSS-N1 (boot-optimized storage) uses 2x M.2 NVMe in a dedicated slot — see below.
Caching (read/write cache): E3.S NVMe for high-density caching (up to 16x E3.S Gen5 in a 2U server). U.2 NVMe for mainstream caching. SAS SSD is too slow for high-performance caching.
VM storage (virtual disks): U.2 NVMe for high-density VMs (>100 VMs per server). E3.S NVMe for software-defined storage (vSAN, StorPool). SAS SSD for general-purpose VMs (<50 VMs per server).
Databases (SQL Server, Oracle, SAP HANA): U.2 NVMe for low-latency queries. E3.S NVMe is acceptable if you need high density. SAS SSD is too slow for large databases (>500 GB).
Object storage (Ceph, MinIO): SAS/SATA HDD for bulk capacity (up to 20 TB per drive). NVMe (E3.S or U.2) for metadata and caching tiers.

RAID/HBA selection: PERC vs S160 vs HBA

RAID controllers matter for performance and redundancy:

PERC (PowerEdge RAID Controller): hardware RAID controller with 8 GB cache and flash-backed write cache. Supports RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60 and offloads RAID processing from the host CPU. Best for databases, VM storage, and workloads that need hardware redundancy. The 16G line pairs H965i with the H755 family; the 17G line moves to H975i (Gen5 host interface, SAS4 at 22.5 Gb/s) or H965i. Watch the H755 variants closely: the H755 adapter is tri-mode — SAS, SATA and NVMe, up to 8 NVMe drives direct per controller — the H755 front SAS is SAS/SATA only, and the H755N front NVMe is NVMe only. All three carry the same 8 GB cache and the same RAID levels, so the suffix on the model number, not the headline spec, decides what actually plugs in.
S160 (software RAID): Dell’s software RAID option for 16th-generation servers, offloading RAID processing to the host CPU with no cache. On Windows it supports Volume, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10; on Linux it provides RAID 1 for the boot volume only. It does not support RAID 6, it is SATA/NVMe only (no SAS drives), each virtual disk is capped at 8 physical drives, and the system needs at least 16 GB of RAM. Lower cost than PERC, but consumes host CPU cycles. Best for software-defined storage (vSAN, StorPool, Ceph) where the OS handles RAID natively.
HBA (Host Bus Adapter): pass-through controller (e.g., HBA355i, HBA465e). No RAID — just presents drives to the OS. Best for software-defined storage, JBOD (just a bunch of disks), and external SAS connectivity (HBA465e for tape libraries or JBOD expansion).

Recommendation:

For hardware RAID (PERC): on 16G, H965i covers SAS, SATA and NVMe in one card, and the H755 adapter does the same at 8 GB cache. On 17G, H975i (Gen5 host interface, SAS4 at 22.5 Gb/s) is the top tier and is validated on R670, R770, R770AP, R6715, R6725, R7715 and R7725 — but not on R570 or R470, which stop at H965i. Match the controller to the platform first, then to the drive.
For software-defined storage (vSAN, StorPool, Ceph): choose S160 or HBA. The OS handles RAID natively. Note that S160 is a 16G-only option — R660, R660xs, R760 and R760xa offer it, while 17G servers (R770, R7715, R7725) list no software RAID at all and must use a PERC or an HBA.
For external SAS connectivity (tape, JBOD): choose HBA465e (external HBA). Only available on 17G servers (R7725, R6725).

BOSS-N1 boot drives

BOSS-N1 (Boot Optimized Storage Solution) is a dedicated slot for boot drives:

BOSS-N1: supports 2x M.2 NVMe drives in a dedicated slot (not in the front drive bays). M.2 is a non-hot-swappable NVMe form factor (similar to a stick of gum). Up to 2x 2 TB M.2 NVMe.
Use case: OS and hypervisor boot. Separating boot drives from data drives improves performance (boot doesn’t compete with data I/O) and simplifies OS replacement (just swap the M.2 drives).
Compatibility: BOSS-N1 is available on 16G (R660, R760) and 17G (R670, R770, R6725, R7725) servers. Check Dell’s official spec sheet for your specific model.

Recommendation: use BOSS-N1 for OS/hypervisor boot, and front-drive bays (E3.S, U.2, SAS/SATA) for data storage. This separates boot I/O from data I/O and simplifies OS replacement.

Software-defined storage: vSAN, StorPool, Ceph

Software-defined storage (SDS) uses local drives to build a shared storage pool:

VMware vSAN: aggregates local drives (NVMe or SAS/SATA) across multiple hosts to build a shared datastore. Requires at least 3 hosts. vSAN uses NVMe for cache tier and SAS/SATA or NVMe for capacity tier. E3.S NVMe is ideal for vSAN cache tier (high density, hot-swappable).
StorPool: similar to vSAN but supports more hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM). Uses NVMe for high-performance shared storage. E3.S NVMe is the recommended form factor for StorPool.
Ceph: open-source SDS that supports object, block, and file storage. Uses OSDs (object storage daemons) on local drives. NVMe is recommended for metadata and caching; SAS/SATA HDD for capacity.

Recommendation:

For VMware-only environments: vSAN with E3.S NVMe cache tier and SAS/SATA capacity tier.
For multi-hypervisor environments: StorPool with E3.S NVMe.
For open-source or cloud-native environments: Ceph with NVMe metadata and SAS/SATA capacity.

Request a quote for the right storage configuration

Storage sizing is workload-specific, and the wrong choice leads to either wasted budget or performance bottlenecks. Send us your workload profile (VM count, database size, storage capacity needs, performance targets), and we’ll recommend the right storage configuration. See the current PowerEdge line servers page and the get a quote. All orders ship from China with worldwide delivery, with lead time and warranty terms fixed per contract.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between E3.S and U.2 NVMe?

Both E3.S and U.2 are NVMe form factors, but E3.S is designed for high density (up to 16x E3.S Gen5 in an R760 or R770, 14–16x in an R660) and is hot-swappable. U.2 is a mainstream 2.5″ NVMe form factor (up to 24x U.2 in a 2U server). E3.S is ideal for software-defined storage (vSAN, StorPool) and caching; U.2 is the standard choice for databases and VM storage.

Can I mix NVMe and SAS/SATA drives in the same server?

Not on the same backplane or the same controller. A single PowerEdge can carry both — E3.S NVMe on one backplane for boot and caching, 2.5″ SAS SSD on another for capacity — but each PERC or HBA configuration manages one protocol. Dell states that mixing NVMe drives with SAS and SATA drives is not supported on PERC. The constraint is the backplane and the controller, not the bay: two drives in the same backplane are still a mixed configuration even when they sit in different slots. Plan by backplane and controller, not by capacity.

What is BOSS-N1, and should I use it for boot?

BOSS-N1 (Boot Optimized Storage Solution) is a dedicated slot for 2x M.2 NVMe drives. It separates boot I/O from data I/O, improving performance and simplifying OS replacement. For most deployments, BOSS-N1 is the recommended boot solution. If your server doesn’t support BOSS-N1, use E3.S or U.2 NVMe in the front bays for boot.

How many NVMe drives can I install in a PowerEdge R760?

The R760 supports up to 24x 2.5″ drives (SAS/SATA or U.2 NVMe) or up to 16x E3.S Gen5 NVMe, depending on the backplane configuration. The 17G R770 tops out at the same 16x E3.S Gen5, while the 1U R660 takes 14–16x E3.S. Check Dell’s official spec sheet for your exact chassis and backplane combination.

What warranty and support terms should I expect for NVMe drives?

Drives that ship inside a new or NOS server follow the server’s 3-year term. Drives bought later as separate spares carry a 1-year supplier warranty unless the invoice states otherwise — which is why a mixed build (new chassis, drives added in year two) runs on two different clocks. See warranty and returns.