Dell PowerEdge T420 Quick start guide

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May 2012 | Rev 1.0

Table of contents
1System overview..................................................................................................................................................................5
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................................5
New technologies ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
2System features ...................................................................................................................................................................7
Comparison of PowerEdge systems ...............................................................................................................................7
Specifications ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
3Chassis views and features ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Chassis views.................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Chassis features ................................................................................................................................................................13
4Processor............................................................................................................................................................................16
Processor features............................................................................................................................................................16
Supported processors......................................................................................................................................................16
GPU support ......................................................................................................................................................................17
Chipset................................................................................................................................................................................17
5Memory...............................................................................................................................................................................18
Supported memory ..........................................................................................................................................................18
Memory configurations ...................................................................................................................................................19
Memory speed ..................................................................................................................................................................19
Memory RAS features...................................................................................................................................................... 20
6Storage ............................................................................................................................................................................... 22
Internal storage ................................................................................................................................................................ 22
External storage ............................................................................................................................................................... 22
Storage controllers.......................................................................................................................................................... 23
Optical drive ..................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Tape drive.......................................................................................................................................................................... 24
7Networking and PCIe ...................................................................................................................................................... 25
Embedded NIC controller.............................................................................................................................................. 25
PCIe expansion ................................................................................................................................................................ 25
8Power, thermal, and acoustics ...................................................................................................................................... 27
Power consumption and energy efficiency................................................................................................................ 27
Power supply units .......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Thermal and acoustics.................................................................................................................................................... 29
9Rack rails and cable management ................................................................................................................................ 32
Sliding rails ........................................................................................................................................................................ 32
Cable management arm................................................................................................................................................. 33
10 Operating systems and virtualization ........................................................................................................................... 34
Supported operating systems........................................................................................................................................ 34
Supported virtualization ................................................................................................................................................. 35
11 Dell OpenManage systems management.................................................................................................................... 36
Systems management solutions ................................................................................................................................... 36
OpenManage systems management ........................................................................................................................... 37
Dell server management operations............................................................................................................................ 42
Additional specifications.......................................................................................................................... 44Appendix A.
Chassis dimensions and weight ....................................................................................................................................44
Power supply specifications .......................................................................................................................................... 44
Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................................ 45
Video specifications ........................................................................................................................................................ 46
Rack rail specifications ................................................................................................................................................... 46
USB peripherals................................................................................................................................................................ 46
Standards compliance ............................................................................................................................. 47Appendix B.

Additional resources.................................................................................................................................48Appendix C.
Table 1. New technologies ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Table 2. Comparing the PowerEdge T410 to PowerEdge T420..................................................................................7
Table 3. Technical specifications...................................................................................................................................... 8
Table 4. Chassis configurations ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Table 5. Chassis features ...................................................................................................................................................13
Table 6. Security features ..................................................................................................................................................15
Table 7. Supported processors ........................................................................................................................................17
Table 8. Memory technologies supported.....................................................................................................................18
Table 9. DIMMs supported................................................................................................................................................19
Table 10. Memory speed capabilities ............................................................................................................................... 20
Table 11. Memory RAS features ........................................................................................................................................20
Table 12. Supported hard drives ....................................................................................................................................... 22
Table 13. Supported RAID controllers.............................................................................................................................. 23
Table 14. Supported external storage .............................................................................................................................. 24
Table 15. Supported NICs and HBAs................................................................................................................................ 25
Table 16. Power tools and technologies......................................................................................................................... 27
Table 17. Power supply efficiency .................................................................................................................................... 29
Table 18. Acoustical performance.....................................................................................................................................31
Table 19. Supported rack types......................................................................................................................................... 32
Table 20. Primary operating system support .................................................................................................................. 34
Table 21. Virtualization support ........................................................................................................................................ 35
Table 22. iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller functions and benefits........................................................................... 37
Table 23. Feature comparison for basic management, iDRAC7 Express, and iDRAC7 Enterprise....................... 38
Table 24. One-to-one and one-to-many operations .................................................................................................. 43
Table 25. Power supply specifications............................................................................................................................. 44
Table 26. Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................... 45
Table 27. Supported video modes for back VGA port ..................................................................................................46
Table 28. Supported video modes for front VGA port ..................................................................................................46
Table 29. Rail adjustability range....................................................................................................................................... 46
Table 30. Industry standard documents .......................................................................................................................... 47
Table 31. Additional resources ..........................................................................................................................................48
Figure 1. Front view 16-drive bay without bezel ........................................................................................................... 10
Figure 2. Front view with bezel..........................................................................................................................................11
Figure 3. Back view .............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Figure 4. Internal view .........................................................................................................................................................12
Figure 5. Rackable front view without bezel...................................................................................................................12
Figure 6. LCD control panel...............................................................................................................................................14
Figure 7. QRL location ........................................................................................................................................................14
Figure 8. 750W power supply unit ................................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 9. Sliding rails with optional CMA ........................................................................................................................ 32
Figure 10. Dell systems management solutions.............................................................................................................. 36
Figure 11. Systems management server lifecycle ........................................................................................................... 42
Figure 12. Tower and rack chassis dimensions ...............................................................................................................44

The 2-socket Dell™ PowerEdge™ T420 tower server delivers balanced performance and
expandability for non-disruptive growth. Optional redundancy and hot pluggability of key
components helps to protect data and keep the business running. The T420 is an excellent fit for a
wide range of applications, including workgroup collaboration, email, file and print, and small- to
mid-size database applications such as Business Analytics and Intelligence. In addition, the T420’s
performance and capacities make it highly attractive for consolidation and virtualization.
Featuring the powerful performance of two Intel®Xeon®processors E5-2400 product family, and
complemented by substantial memory capacity and broad I/O bandwidth, the T420 provides high,
balanced performance and built-in room for growth. Its twelve DIMM slots and six PCIe slots
provide memory density and wide I/O bandwidth to support both memory-intensive and data-
intensive applications and databases. Built-in capacity for up to eight 3.5-inch or sixteen 2.5-inch
hard drives accommodate data storage as your business or organization grows. These combined
technology features are highly beneficial when implementing consolidated and virtualized
environments, a role in which the T420 also shines.
To protect your virtualized workloads, the PowerEdge T420 offers dual SD media making your
hypervisors redundant and failsafe. Other reliability and availability features include hot-plug hard
drives, both hardware and software RAID options, redundant fans and hot-plug power supplies.
The PowerEdge family is engineered with the right combination of features and performance
scalability to handle tough workloads for businesses and organizations of all sizes.
The Dell OpenManage™ systems management portfolio includes Integrated Dell Remote Access
Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller. This embedded feature helps IT administrators
manage Dell servers in physical, virtual, local and remote environments, operating in-band or out-
of-band, with or without a systems management software agent. Dell OpenManage solutions
integrate with and connect to third-party systems management solutions so you can maintain your
single point of control and capitalize on your existing investment. Dell OpenManage capabilities
simplify IT administrator tasks and reduce potential for error throughout the server lifecycle,
spanning deployment deploying, updating, monitoring, and maintaining your Dell PowerEdge
servers.

Table 1 summarizes the newest technologies used in the Dell PowerEdge T420 tower server.
New technologies
Detailed descriptions
Intel Xeon processor
E5-2400 product family
This new family of Intel processors has embedded PCIe lanes for improved I/O
performance. See the Processor section for details.
Intel C600 series chipset
The Intel Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chip is implemented on the T420 server.
1600 MT/s DDR3
memory
Certain models of the E5-2400 series processors support 1600 MT/s memory. The
T420 supports two DIMMs per channel at 1600 MT/s with certain models. See the
Memory section for details.
Next generation PERC
options
The T420 supports the new PERC controller cards with improved functionality and
faster performance. See the Storage section for details.
PERC S110 software
RAID Solution
This new software RAID solution supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, and supports a
maximum of four hot-plug SATA hard drives or SATA solid-state drives. See the
Storage section for details.
iDRAC7 with Lifecycle
Controller
The new embedded system management solution for Dell servers features
hardware and firmware inventory and alerting, in-depth memory alerting, faster
performance, a dedicated gigabit port, and many more features. See the Dell
OpenManage systems management section for details.
Internal GPU support
The T420 supports internal graphics processing units (GPUs) for VDI and medical
imaging. See the Processor section for details.
Advanced power
management
The T420 supports advanced power monitoring and power capping tools that can
help manage power consumption. See the Power, thermal, and acoustics section
for details.
Fresh Air cooling
Dell has tested and validated an integrated data center solution that enables you
to operate at higher temperatures or even chiller-less. See the Power, thermal, and
acoustics section for details.
Failsafe hypervisors
The internal dual SD module is a modular fail-safe design that is dedicated for an
embedded ESX hypervisor or other embedded operating system. See the
Supported virtualization for details.
Fan fault tolerance
Failure of one fan rotor is tolerated with degradation in performance through
active throttling and increased fan speeds. The feature helps reduce downtime by
allowing you to schedule a fan replacement within 360 hours of a fan failure.

Compared to the previous generation PowerEdge T410, the T420 supports up to 33% more
processor cores, 50% more DIMM slots, 166% more internal hard drive storage capacity, and the
greater I/O bandwidth of PCIe 3.0. Its high quality is backed by high availability features including
redundant SD cards for failsafe hypervisors and soft, fault-tolerant fans, and optional features such
as redundant high-efficiency power supplies and hot-plug hard drives.
The T420 is the new generation PowerEdge server replacing the T410. Table 2 compares some of
the T420 features to the T410 features.
Feature
PowerEdge T410
PowerEdge T420
Chassis
5U tower
5U rackable tower1
Processors
IntelXeonprocessors 5500 and 5600
series
Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product
family
Internal interconnect
Intel QuickPath Interconnect
Intel QuickPath Interconnect
Memory2
Up to 8 x DDR3 RDIMM and UDIMM
Up to 12 x DDR3 RDIMM and UDIMM
Hard drive bays
Up to 6 x 3.5”or 2.5” hot-plug or cabled
16 x 2.5“ hot-plug or
8 x 3.5“/2.5” hot-plug or 4 x 3.5”cabled
RAID controller
PERC 6/i, SAS 6/iR, PERC 6/E, H200,
H700, H800, S100, S300
PERC H310, H710, H710P, H810, S110
PCI slots
Up to 4 PCIe 2.0 and 1 PCIe 1.0
Up to 4 PCIe 3.0 and 2 PCIe 2.0
Embedded NICs
Dual Broadcom®1GbE LOM
Dual Broadcom 1GbE LOM
Power supplies
Non-redundant 525W
Redundant 580W
Non-redundant 550W or hot-plug,
redundant 495W, 750W, or 1100W
Systems management
Dell OpenManage
Dell Management Console
Lifecycle Controller 1.x
Dell OpenManage Essentials
Dell Management Console
OpenManage Power Center (requires
iDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle
Controller 2.x)
Remote management
Baseboard Management Controller
iDRAC6 (Express or Enterprise) with
Lifecycle Controller 1.x
Basic management upgradeable to
iDRAC7 (Express or Enterprise) with
Lifecycle Controller 2.x
Internal GPU
Not supported
Up to 2 single-width or 1 double-width
Power efficiency
Gold
Platinum
Availability
Hot-plug drives
Hot-plug redundant power supply units
Hot-plug drives
Hot-plug redundant power supply units
Fan fault tolerance
Fault-resilient memory
Internal dual SD modules
1Optional kit available for field conversion from tower to rackable unit.
2GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less.

Table 3 summarizes the specifications for each of the PowerEdge T420 features. For the latest
information on supported features for the PowerEdge T420, visit Dell.com.
Feature
PowerEdge T420 technical specification
Form factor
5U rackable tower1
Processors
Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family
Processor sockets
2
Internal interconnect
1 Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) link: 6.4 GT/s, 7.2 GT/s, 8.0 GT/s
Cache
2.5MB per core with core options of 4, 6, or 8
Chipset
Intel C600
Memory2
Up to 192GB (12 DIMM slots): 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB DDR3 up to 1600 MT/s
PCIe slots
6 PCIe slots
2x16 slots with x16 bandwidth, 3.0, full-height, full-length
1x 8 slot with x4 bandwidth, 3.0, full-height, half-length
1x 8 slot with x4 bandwidth, 2.0, full-height, half-length
1x 8 slot with x4 bandwidth, 3.0, full-height, full-length
1x 8 slot with x1 bandwidth, 2.0, full-height, full-length
RAID controller
Internal controllers:
PERC S110 (SW RAID)
PERC H310
PERC H710
PERC H710P
Internal HBAs (non-RAID):
Internal tape adapter
External HBAs (RAID):
PERC H810
External HBAs (non-RAID):
6Gbps SAS HBA
Hard drives
Drive bay options:
4 x 3.5” cabled SAS or SATA drives or
8 x 3.5” or 2.5”hot-plug SAS, SATA or SSD drives or
16 x 2.5” hot-plug SAS, SATA or SSD drives
Hot-plug hard drive options:
2.5” SATA (7.2K), nearline SAS (7.2K), SAS (15K, 10K), SAS SSD, SATA SSD
3.5” SATA (7.2K), nearline SAS (7.2K), SAS (15K)
Self-encrypting drives available
Cabled hard drive options:
3.5” SATA or SAS
Embedded NIC
Broadcom 5720 GbE Dual Port
Power supply
Platinum efficiency 495W, 750W and 1100W power supplies
Silver efficiency cabled 550W power supply
Auto-ranging power supplies

Feature
PowerEdge T420 technical specification
Availability
Optional high-efficiency, hot-plug, redundant power supplies; hot-plug hard drives;
TPM; dual internal SD support; redundant fans; optional bezel; information tag; ECC
memory; interactive LCD screen; extended power range; ENERGY STAR®compliant;
switch independent partioning
Remote management
Basic management (default)
iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller Express (upgrade)
iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller Enterprise (upgrade)
8GB vFlash media (upgrade), 16GB vFlash media (upgrade)
Systems management
Dell OpenManage Essentials
Dell OpenManage Power Center
Dell OpenManage Integrations and Connections:
OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft®System Center
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware®vCenter™
Connections for HP Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli® Netcool®and CA Network
and Systems Management
IPMI 2.0 compliant
Rack support
ReadyRailsTM II sliding rails for tool-less mounting in 4-post racks with square or
unthreaded round holes or tooled mounting in 4-post threaded hole racks, with
support for optional tool-less cable management arm
Operating systems
Microsoft Windows Server®2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V™ v2)
Microsoft Windows®Small Business Server 2011
SUSE®Linux®Enterprise Server
Red Hat®Enterprise Linux®
Optional embedded hypervisors:
Citrix®XenServer™
VMware vSphere™
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization®
For more information on the specific versions and additions, visit
Dell.com/OSsupport.
1Optional kit available for field conversion from tower to rackable unit.
2GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and
will be less.

The Dell PowerEdge T420 is a 5U, 2-socket, rackable tower server. For additional system views and
features, see the Dell PowerEdge T420 Systems Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
Table 4 lists the possible chassis configurations available for the T420.
Number of
drive bays
Drive types
Controller
Front
control
panel
Power supply
Rack
option
4 cabled
drive bays
3.5” SATA and
SAS HHD
PERC S110, H310, H710*, H710P*
LED
Cabled 550W
No
8 hot-plug
drive bays
3.5” SATA and
SAS HHD
2.5” SAS
SSD/HHD
PERC S110, H310, H710, H710P
LCD
Cabled 550W
or hot-plug
495W, 750W,
or 1100W
Yes
16 hot-plug
drive bays
2.5” SATA and
SAS SSD/HHD
PERC H310, H710, H710P
LCD
Hot-plug
495W, 750W,
1100W
Yes
*Available Q3 2012
Figure 1 shows the features on the front of the T420 16-drive bay chassis including the front control
panel, USB connectors, and many other components and features described in this guide.

Figure 2 shows the optional lockable bezel on the front of the T420 chassis.
Figure 3 shows the features on the back panel of the T420 including USB connectors, Ethernet
connectors, serial connector, video connector, PCIe slots, power supplies, iDRAC dedicated port,
and many other components and features described in this guide.

The chassis design of the T420 is optimized for easy access to components and for airflow for
effective and efficient cooling. Figure 4 provides an internal view of the T420 including the DIMMs,
PCIe card slots, power supplies, fans, and processors.
Figure 5 shows the front view of the rackable T420 chassis without a bezel.

Table 5 lists the various features on the T420. For additional information, see the Dell PowerEdge
T420 Systems Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
Feature
Description
Power button
ACPI-compliant power button with an integrated green power LED
Front bezel
Covers the system’s front-loading hard drives and locks for security
NMI button
Used to troubleshoot software and device driver errors; use only if directed
to do so by qualified support personnel or by the operating system's
documentation
System identification button
Buttons on the back and front of a system to help identify the unit in a data
center environment
Hard drives
Up to sixteen 2.5-inch drives
USB connectors
Connects USB devices to the server
Information tag
Slide-out label panel for recording system information
Video connector
Connects a monitor to the server; the tower chassis has one port on the
back of the chassis; the rack chassis has a port on both the front and back of
the chassis
LCD panel and buttons
Displays system ID, status information, and system error messages;
the hot-plug chassis has two navigation buttons to scroll through the menu
on the LCD and one select button
Optical drive
Optional half-height DVD or DVD+RW drive
Power supply units
Supplies power to the server
Power supply indicators
Indicates whether server has power
NIC indicators
Indicates network activity and status
PCIe slots
Connects PCIe expansion cards to the server
Ethernet connectors
Connects integrated 10/100/1000 NICs to the server
Serial connector
Connects a serial device to the server
iDRAC7 Enterprise port
Dedicated management port for optional iDRAC Ports card

The T420 control panel is located on the front of the chassis as shown in Figure 6. For more
information about the LCD control panel, see the Dell PowerEdge T420 Systems Owner’s Manual on
Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
A useful feature included with Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers is the Quick Resource Locator
(QRL)—a model-specific Quick Response (QR) code that is located inside the T420 chassis cover
(see Figure 7). Use your smartphone to access the Dell QRL app to learn more about the server.
This QRL code allows you to:
View step-by-step videos, including overviews of system internals and externals, as well as
detailed, concise, task-oriented videos and installation wizards
Locate reference materials, including searchable owner’s manual content, LCD diagnostics, and
an electrical overview
Look up your service tag so you can quickly gain access to your specific hardware configuration
info and warranty information
Contact Dell directly (by link) to get in touch with technical support and sales teams and provide
feedback to Dell
These codes provide an easy way to retrieve the critical support information you need when you
need it, making you more efficient and effective in managing your hardware.

The latest generation of PowerEdge servers has the features listed in Table 6 to help ensure the
security of your data center.
Security feature
Description
Cover latch
A tooled latch is integrated on the chassis (top of rack chassis or side of tower
chassis) with a coin key lock to secure the system.
Bezel
An optional metal bezel is mounted to the chassis front to provide the Dell ID. A
lock on the bezel is used to protect un-authorized access to hard drives. System
status is viewable on the LCD screen when the bezel is installed.
TPM
The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is used to generate/store keys,
protect/authenticate passwords, and create/store digital certificates. It also
supports the Intel Xeon TXT functionality. TPM can also be used to enable the
BitLocker™ hard drive encryption feature in Windows Server 2008. TPM 1.2 is
supported. No TPM version is available for China or Russia.
Power-off security
BIOS has the ability to disable the power button function.
Intrusion alert
An internal switch is used to detect chassis intrusion.
Secure mode
BIOS has the ability to enter a secure boot mode through system setup. This
mode includes the option to lock out the power and NMI switches on the
control panel or set up a system password.

The Dell PowerEdge T420 features the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, which offers
an ideal combination of performance, power efficiency, and cost. These processors provide
substantial performance and capacity for entry and mainstream workloads, as well as applications
requiring significant memory and I/O scalability no matter what your constraint is—floor space,
power, or budget. In addition to providing raw performance gains, improved I/O is also made
possible with Intel Integrated I/O, which can reduce latency by adding more lanes and doubling
bandwidth. This helps to reduce network and storage bottlenecks, unleashing the processor’s
performance capabilities.
The new Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family provides the following features:
2-socket processor design with power and dimensions optimized for density
Up to 8 execution cores per processor
Intel Hyper-Threading technology enables up to 16 computational threads
Micro-architecture on 32nm process for greater performance per watt
Support for more memory—4 additional DIMMs (up to 12 DIMM slots) and support for up to
16 GB DIMMs increasing the memory capacity from 128 GB to 192 GB
Integrated memory controller with 3 channels of DDR3 and 46-bit physical addressing facilitate
greater memory capacity
Intel Integrated I/O has support for up to 24 lanes per socket of PCIe 3.0 links (for more
information on PCIe lanes, see the specifications in the System features section)
Faster connections throughout the system with support for DDR3 1600 MT/s memory and
8.0 GT/s QPI
Intel Data Direct I/O (DDIO) allows I/O traffic to skip the main system memory and be directed
straight to the processor cache, which can provide a significant reduction in latency as well as
allowing memory to remain in a low-power state
High bandwidth, low latency, bidirectional ring interconnect allows faster access to the 20MB
multi-banked last level cache
Intel Advanced Vector Extensions offer up to double the floating point operations per clock
cycle by doubling the length of registers, which can be useful for addressing very complex
problems or dealing with large-number calculations, which are integral to many technical,
financial, and scientific computing problems
Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, which allows processor cores to run faster than the base
operating frequency if it's operating below power, current, and temperature specification limits,
delivers up to double the boost than the previous generation
Continued improvements to both Intel TXT and AES-NI help to better protect systems and data
For more information on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, visit Intel.com.
Table 7 lists the Intel Xeon processors supported by the PowerEdge T420. For the latest information
on supported processors, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.

Model
Speed
TDP
Cache
Cores/
threads
QPI
Max
memory
speed
Turbo
E5-2450
2.1GHz
95W
20MB
8/16
8.0 GT/s
1600MT/s
Yes
E5-2440
2.4GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2 GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2430L
2.0GHz
60W
15MB
6/12
7.2 GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2430
2.2GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2 GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2420
1.9GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2 GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2407
2.2GHz
80W
10MB
4/8
6.4 GT/s
1066MT/s
NA
E5-2403
1.8GHz
80W
10MB
4/8
6.4 GT/s
1066MT/s
NA
For information on processor installation and configuration, see the Dell PowerEdge T420 Systems
Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
The T420 supports graphics processing unit (GPU) technology, providing accelerated performance
for a variety of applications such as VDI and medical imaging.
The T420 supports two nVidia®Q4000 full-length, single-width or one nVidia Q6000 full-length,
double-width GPU. GPU cards are available through certified factory installation (CFI) or field
upgrade only.
Each GPU supports up to 6GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory and is actively cooled. Each GPU has
one or two power connectors to meet the high demand for power delivery. The power connectors
are located on the back of the card.
The GPUs from nVidia have PCIe 2.0 that can be installed in the T420 PCIe x16 3.0 slots 3 and 5 (slot
5 requires a two-processor configuration). The interface for the next generation GPU cards will be
PCIe 3.0.
The following system configuration restrictions apply when a GPU is installed:
1100W redundant power supply is recommended
System can support only one 5.25-inch device
Some operating systems have not been validated to support GPUs. See Table 20 for more
information on operating system support of GPUs.
The Intel C600 chipset is implemented on the PowerEdge T420. For more information, visit
Intel.com.

More options are available for the Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers than in previous
generations—more capacity choices and more frequency choices. The PowerEdge T420 supports
up to 192 GB of memory with speeds of up to 1600 MT/s, providing high performance in a variety of
applications. The new reliability, availability, serviceability (RAS) features like memory mirroring and
sparing help you increase your uptime and reduce data loss. RAS aids in the rapid and accurate
diagnosis of faults that require service, increasing your memory reliability.
The T420 supports the memory technologies shown in Table 8.
Feature
UDIMM
RDIMM
Register
No
Yes
Buffer
No
No
Frequencies
800, 1066, or 1333MT/s
800, 1066, 1333, or 1600 MT/s
Ranks supported
1 or 2
1, 2, or 4
Capacity per DIMM
2 or 4 GB
2, 4, 8, or 16 GB
Maximum DIMMS per channel
2
2
DRAM technology
x8
x4 or x8
Temperature sensor
Yes
Yes
ECC
Yes
Yes
SDDC
Yes (with advanced ECC mode)
Yes
Address parity
Yes
Yes

The T420 supports the DIMMs listed in Table 9. For the latest information on supported memory,
visit Dell.com.
Capacity
(GB)
Speed
(MT/s)
Type
Ranks per
DIMM
Data
width
SDDC support
Voltage
2
1333
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1333
UDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1600
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.5
4
1333
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
1
x4
All modes
1.35
4
1333
UDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1600
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.5
8
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
8
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.5
16
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.5
Flexible memory configurations are supported on the T420, ranging from capacities of 2 GB to
192 GB. The system supports up to 6 DIMMs per processor (up to 12 DIMMs in a 2-processor
configuration). The T420 has 3 memory channels per processor, with each channel supporting up to
2 DIMMs.
The T420 supports a flexible memory configuration according to these basic rules:
Speed: If DIMMs of different speeds are mixed, all channels across all processors operate at the
slowest DIMM’s common frequency.
DIMM type: Only one type of DIMM can be used in a system. UDIMMs and RDIMMs cannot be
mixed.
The following additional memory population guidelines apply to the T420:
Up to two quad-rank (QR), dual-rank (DR), or single-rank (SR) DIMMs may be populated per
channel.
DIMMs must be installed in each channel, starting with the DIMM farthest from the processor.
DIMMs should be installed with largest rank count to smallest. For example, if DR DIMMS are
mixed with SR DIMMs, DR DIMMS should be placed in the lowest DIMM slots, followed by the SR
DIMMs.
For more information on memory configuration, see the Dell PowerEdge T420 Systems Owner’s
Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
The T420 supports memory speeds of 1600 MT/s, 1333 MT/s, 1066 MT/s, and 800 MT/s depending
on the DIMM types installed and the configuration. All memory on all processors and channels run

at the same speed and voltage. By default, the systems run at the highest speed for the channel with
the lowest DIMM voltage and speed. The operating speed of the memory is also determined by the
maximum speed supported by the processor, the speed settings in the BIOS, and the operating
voltage of the system.
Table 10 lists memory configuration and performance details for the T420 based on the population
of the number and type of DIMMs per memory channel.
DIMM
type
DIMM 0
DIMM 1
Number
of
DIMMs
Speed (MT/s)
800
1066
1333
1600
UDIMM
SR
1
∞
∞
∞
DR
1
∞
∞
∞
SR
SR
2
∞
∞
∞
SR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
DR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
RDIMM
SR
1
∞
∞
∞
∞
DR
1
∞
∞
∞
∞
QR
1
∞
∞
SR
SR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
SR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
DR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
QR
SR
2
∞
QR
DR
2
∞
QR
QR
2
∞
RAS features help keep the system online and operational without significant impact to performance,
and can decrease data loss and crashing due to errors. RAS aids in rapid, accurate diagnosis of faults
that require service. Table 11 describes the RAS features supported on the T420.
Feature
Description
Dense configuration
optimized profile
Increased memory reliability can be a result from this selectable platform profile
that adjusts parameters to reduce faults regarding refresh rates, speed,
temperature and voltage
Memory demand and
patrol scrubbing
Demand scrubbing is the ability to write corrected data back to the memory once
a correctable error is detected on a read transaction.
Patrol scrubbing proactively searches the system memory, repairing correctable
errors.