Specifications

21 PowerEdge R420 Technical Guide
6 Storage
The Dell PowerEdge R420 supports internal and external storage options and controllers, different
drive types and different chassis configurations for a varied number of drives.
Features such as CacheCade™ provide accelerated performance over previous technologies.
CacheCade uses Dell PERC storage controllers to accelerate performance over hard drives or
traditional solid-state drives.
Internal storage
R420 has three chassis to support up to three different drive-bay options.
 4 x 3.5-inch drive option (base configuration, cabled tray)
 4 x 3.5-inch drive option (volume configuration, hot-plug tray; 2.5-inch hybrid kit available
for 2.5-inch drives)
 8 x 2.5-inch drive option (maximum drive support in 1U, hot-plug tray)
Supported hard drives
The R420 supports up to eight 2.5-inch or four 3.5-inch hard drives or solid-state drives. Self-
encrypting drives (SED) are available. Table 11 lists more information about these drives. For an up-
to-date list of supported hard drives for the R420, see Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Table 11. Supported hard drives
Form
factor
Type
Speed
(rpm)
Capacities
2.5”
Nearline SAS*
N/A
500G, 1TB, 1TB SED
SAS
10K
300GB, 600GB, 900GB, 900GB SED,
1.2TB
SAS
15K
146GB, 300GB, 300GB SED
SAS SSD
N/A
200GB, 300GB
SATA SSD
N/A
100GB, 160GB, 200GB, 400GB, 600GB,
800GB
SATA*
N/A
250GB, 500GB, 1TB
3.5”
SATA
7.2K
500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB
Nearline SAS
7.2K
1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB
SAS
15K
300GB, 600GB
* Applies to the eight-drive bay only.