User Manual

Dell
PowerEdge R710 Technical Guide 23
Power, Thermal, Acoustic
Power Efficiency
One of the main features of the 11G family of servers is enhanced power efficiency. The R710 achieves higher
power efficiency by implementing the following features:
• User-selectable power cap (subsystems throttle to maintain the specified power cap)
• Improved power budgeting
• Power-supply and voltage-regulator (VR) efficiency improvements
• Use of switching regulators instead of linear regulators
• Closed-loop thermal throttling
• Increased rear venting and 3D venting
• Pulse-width modulated (PWM) fans with an increased number of fan zones and configuration-dependent
fan speeds
• Use of DDR3 memory (lower voltage compared to DDR2, UDIMM)
• Processor VR dynamic phase shedding
• Memory VR static phase shedding
• Random time interval for system start
• Ability for an entire rack to power on without exceeding the available power
• BIOS Power/Performance options page
• Active Power Controller (BIOS-based CPU P-state manager)
• Ability to power down or throttle memory
• Ability to disable a processor core
• Ability to turn off embedded NICs or PCIe lanes when not being used
• Option to run PCIe at Gen1 speeds instead of Gen2
Main Power Supply
The base redundant R710 system consists of two hot-plug 570W Energy Smart (energy efficient) power supplies
in a 1+1 configuration. An 870W high-output power supply is also available.
The power supplies connect directly to the planar. There is a power cable to connect between the planar and
the backplane. The R710 power supplies have embedded cooling fans.
Field replaceable unit (FRU) data is stored in the memory of the power supply microcontroller. Additionally,
the power supply firmware can be updated by the iDRAC over the PMBus.
Power is soft-switched, allowing power cycling using a switch on the front of the system enclosure or by
software control (through server management functions).
In a single power supply configuration, the power supply is installed in PS1 location and a power supply blank
(metal cover) is installed in PS2 location for proper system cooling.