Dell PowerVault MD3260 vs HPE MSA 2040
Side-by-side specifications from the vendors' own documents. The Dell PowerVault MD3260 was Dell's pioneering 4U dense direct-attached storage array, featuring 60 hot-swappable drive bays in two pull-out drawers and dual 6Gb SAS controllers. The HPE MSA 2040 is an enterprise 2U entry-to-midrange SAN storage system designed for growing virtualization, SQL Server, and Microsoft Exchange deployments.
| Dell PowerVault MD3260 | HPE MSA 2040 | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Dell | HPE |
| Status | end-of-support | end-of-sale |
| Released | Sep 2012 | May 2013 |
| Form factor | 4U rack | 2U rack enterprise SAN |
| Controller type | Dual active-active 6Gb SAS RAID controllers, 2GB or 4GB cache per controller | — |
| Drive bays | 60x 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SAS/NL-SAS/SSD drives in two 30-slot drawers in 4U | — |
| Raw capacity | Up to 240TB raw storage in base enclosure (with 4TB drives); expands to 180 drives | — |
| Host interface | 4x 6Gb/s mini-SAS (SFF-8088) ports per controller (8 ports total) | — |
| Power supply | Dual redundant hot-plug 1755W power supply modules | — |
| Form factor | — | 2U 12-drive LFF or 24-drive SFF chassis |
| Controllers | — | Dual active-active controllers (8GB total cache with supercap protection) |
| Host ports | — | 4 converged SFP+ ports per controller (16Gb FC or 10GbE iSCSI) |
| Max drives | — | Up to 199 SFF or 96 LFF drives with seven expansion shelves |
| Raid support | — | RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50 |
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