Dell PowerEdge XE8545

Brand: Dell | Category: Servers

SKU: XE8545-BASE | Part #: XE8545-BASE | MPN: XE8545-BASE

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The Dell PowerEdge XE8545 is built for environments where compute headroom matters: 128 CPU cores across two 3rd Gen AMD EPYC 7003 series sockets, up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory across 32 DIMM slots, and four NVMe bays plus enterprise boot redundancy. These three numbers—core count, memory ceiling, and storage density—define whether a server scales with your workload or becomes a bottleneck. The XE8545 (part number XE8545-BASE) exists because single-socket and mid-range dual-socket servers stop scaling at exactly the point where GPU-accelerated workloads demand more CPU-side cache, more system memory bandwidth, and more I/O lanes than traditional x86 designs can provide.

What separates the Dell PowerEdge XE8545 from other dual-socket GPU platforms is the NVIDIA HGX A100 SXM4 baseboard, which seats four A100 accelerators—either 40 GB or 80 GB variants—with direct NVIDIA NVLink interconnect delivering 600 GB/s of bidirectional GPU-to-GPU bandwidth. This is not a sled that bolts cards into PCIe slots; it is an integrated GPU platform where the A100s communicate at NVLink speeds, not PCIe 4.0 speeds. That distinction matters to AI infrastructure teams provisioning large language model training clusters, scientific computing workloads, or data analytics pipelines where GPU-to-GPU latency and throughput directly affect job completion time. The two Titanium-rated 1600W power supplies provide sufficient headroom for sustained 400W per A100 operation, totaling approximately 1,600W system TDP under GPU load—a specification Dell publishes clearly because overloaded PSUs kill reliability.

Network connectivity on the XE8545-BASE reflects data centre deployment patterns. The two embedded 10GbE ports (LOM) handle out-of-band management and light workload traffic, while two optional NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR100 InfiniBand adapters (or 100GbE alternatives) plug into the two PCIe 4.0 x16 CPU-attached slots for cluster interconnect. This asymmetry is intentional: enterprises and storage architects designing multi-node GPU clusters need the high-speed interconnect to saturate NVLink bandwidth across dozens or hundreds of nodes, not bottleneck it at the network layer. iDRAC9 Datacenter delivers per-node lifecycle management, while NVIDIA Base Command Manager sits atop the stack for cluster-wide orchestration and resource allocation. Dell and NVIDIA jointly validate this platform against Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 LTS, RHEL 8/9, and SLES 15, with explicit NVIDIA AI Enterprise certification—meaning your software licensing aligns with hardware support without painful compatibility investigations.

The 4U form factor and high-static-pressure cooling design reflect real data centre constraints. Two 4U nodes occupy the same rack height as four 2U systems, reducing sprawl and simplifying cable management when you are deploying 64 or 128 A100s in a single rack frame. Front-to-rear airflow and redundant power paths mean the XE8545 fits into existing data centre thermal and electrical infrastructure without requiring custom cooling loops or exotic power distribution. Network engineers appreciate the dual Mellanox HDR100 lanes for building non-blocking or slightly oversubscribed cluster topologies; sysadmins rely on the Redfish API and OpenManage Enterprise integration to inventory these systems alongside existing Dell infrastructure without deploying a separate management silo.

Storage provisioning on the XE8545 is modest by design—four 2.5-inch NVMe bays plus a BOSS-S2 boot module—because this server is purpose-built for compute, not storage tiering. The NVMe capacity typically functions as scratch space for intermediate model checkpoints, batch prediction caches, or local analytics scratch pads, not as the primary data store. HBA355i storage controller and the boot redundancy module ensure the OS layer remains available during a single-drive failure, which matters when you are running 24/7 training jobs that lose value every hour they idle.

GPU Acceleration and Cluster Integration

• Four NVIDIA A100 SXM4 GPUs with NVIDIA NVLink 600 GB/s GPU-to-GPU interconnect (not PCIe-limited bandwidth)
• Choice of 40 GB or 80 GB HBM2e per GPU, selectable at order time to match model architecture and dataset footprint
• Two NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR100 InfiniBand ports supporting 100 Gb/s cluster interconnect for multi-node training topologies
• NVIDIA Base Command Manager validated and supported; NVIDIA AI Enterprise certified for production workloads
• Dual 3rd Gen AMD EPYC 7003 (Milan) sockets provide up to 128 cores and 2 TB DDR4 memory to balance CPU preprocessing, inference serving, and data loading with GPU compute
• Four redundant 1600W Titanium PSUs sized for sustained A100 operation without thermal or power delivery margin loss
• iDRAC9 Datacenter plus Redfish API for programmatic node discovery, monitoring, and remediation in large cluster deployments

Omnixon Global has been the trusted Dell EMC infrastructure partner across the GCC, Asia-Pacific, and Europe for more than a decade, serving hyperscale data centres, AI research labs, and Fortune 500 enterprises. We stock the Dell PowerEdge XE8545 (part number XE8545-BASE) and maintain regional service agreements that respect your uptime requirements and budget cycles. Whether you are architecting your first GPU cluster or scaling from tens to hundreds of A100s, our technical team works with you from design phase through deployment, ensuring network topology, NUMA affinity tuning, and driver validation happen before go-live. Contact us with your workload profile, node count, and timeline—we will provide a formal RFQ with lead times, spare parts recommendations, and support tiers aligned to your SLA.