Dell PowerEdge T420 Quick start guide

PowerEdge T420
Technical Guide
The quiet, powerful,
scalable PowerEdge
T420 delivers capacity,
performance, and high
availability features to
drive your business or
organization forward.

ii PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
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September 2013 | Version 4.0

iii PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
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 ..............................................................................................................................................11
Chassis views..................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Chassis features ................................................................................................................................................................14
4Processor............................................................................................................................................................................17
Processor features............................................................................................................................................................17
Supported processors......................................................................................................................................................17
GPU support ......................................................................................................................................................................18
Chipset................................................................................................................................................................................18
5Memory...............................................................................................................................................................................19
Supported memory ..........................................................................................................................................................19
Memory configurations .................................................................................................................................................. 20
Memory speed ................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Memory RAS features.......................................................................................................................................................21
6Storage ............................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Internal storage ................................................................................................................................................................ 23
External storage ............................................................................................................................................................... 23
Storage controllers.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Optical drive ..................................................................................................................................................................... 25
Tape drive.......................................................................................................................................................................... 25
7Networking and PCIe ...................................................................................................................................................... 26
Embedded NIC controller.............................................................................................................................................. 26
PCIe expansion ................................................................................................................................................................ 26
8Power, thermal, and acoustics ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Power consumption and energy efficiency................................................................................................................ 28
Power supply units .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Thermal and acoustics.................................................................................................................................................... 30
9Rack rails and cable management ................................................................................................................................ 33
Sliding rails ........................................................................................................................................................................ 33
Cable management arm................................................................................................................................................. 34
10 Operating systems and virtualization ........................................................................................................................... 35
Supported operating systems........................................................................................................................................ 35
Supported virtualization ................................................................................................................................................. 36
11 Dell OpenManage systems management.................................................................................................................... 37
Systems management solutions................................................................................................................................... 37
OpenManage systems management ........................................................................................................................... 38
Dell server management operations............................................................................................................................ 43
Appendix A. Additional specifications.......................................................................................................................... 45
Chassis dimensions ......................................................................................................................................................... 45
Chassis weight.................................................................................................................................................................. 45
Power supply specifications .......................................................................................................................................... 45
Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................................ 46
Video specifications ........................................................................................................................................................ 47
Rack rail specifications ................................................................................................................................................... 48
USB peripherals................................................................................................................................................................48

iv PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Appendix B. Standards compliance ............................................................................................................................. 49
Appendix C. Additional resources................................................................................................................................. 50
Appendix D. System board block diagram .................................................................................................................. 52
Tables
Table 1. New technologies ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Table 2. Comparing the PowerEdge T410 to PowerEdge T420..................................................................................7
Table 3. Technical specifications...................................................................................................................................... 8
Table 4. Chassis configurations ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Table 5. Chassis features ...................................................................................................................................................14
Table 6. Security features ..................................................................................................................................................16
Table 7. Supported processors ........................................................................................................................................18
Table 8. Memory technologies supported.....................................................................................................................19
Table 9. DIMMs supported............................................................................................................................................... 20
Table 10. Memory speed capabilities ................................................................................................................................21
Table 11. Memory RAS features .........................................................................................................................................21
Table 12. Supported hard drives ....................................................................................................................................... 23
Table 13. Supported RAID controllers.............................................................................................................................. 24
Table 14. Supported external storage .............................................................................................................................. 25
Table 15. Supported NICs and HBAs................................................................................................................................ 26
Table 16. Power tools and technologies ......................................................................................................................... 28
Table 17. Power supply efficiency .................................................................................................................................... 30
Table 18. Acoustical performance.................................................................................................................................... 32
Table 19. Supported rack types......................................................................................................................................... 33
Table 20. Primary operating system support .................................................................................................................. 35
Table 21. Virtualization support ........................................................................................................................................ 36
Table 22. iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller functions and benefits........................................................................... 38
Table 23. Feature comparison for basic management, iDRAC7 Express, and iDRAC7 Enterprise....................... 39
Table 24. One-to-one and one-to-many operations ..................................................................................................44
Table 25. Power supply specifications............................................................................................................................. 45
Table 26. Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................... 46
Table 27. Supported video modes for back VGA port .................................................................................................. 47
Table 28. Supported video modes for front VGA port .................................................................................................. 47
Table 29. Rail adjustability range.......................................................................................................................................48
Table 30. Industry standard documents .......................................................................................................................... 49
Table 31. Additional resources .......................................................................................................................................... 50
Figures
Figure 1. Front view 16-drive bay without bezel ............................................................................................................ 11
Figure 2. Front view with bezel..........................................................................................................................................12
Figure 3. Back view ..............................................................................................................................................................12
Figure 4. Internal view .........................................................................................................................................................13
Figure 5. Rackable front view without bezel...................................................................................................................13
Figure 6. LCD control panel...............................................................................................................................................15
Figure 7. QRL location ........................................................................................................................................................15
Figure 8. 750W power supply unit ................................................................................................................................... 30
Figure 9. Sliding rails with optional CMA ........................................................................................................................ 33
Figure 10. Dell systems management solutions.............................................................................................................. 37
Figure 11. Systems management server lifecycle ........................................................................................................... 43
Figure 12. Tower and rack chassis dimensions ............................................................................................................... 45
Figure 13. T420 system board block diagram ................................................................................................................. 52

5 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
1System overview
Introduction
The two-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.
A versatile workhorse
Featuring the powerful performance of two Intel®Xeon®E5-2400 product family processors, and
complemented by substantial memory capacity and broad I/O bandwidth, the T420 provides high,
balanced performance and built-in room for growth. Its 12 DIMM slots and six PCI Express®(PCIe)
slots provide memory density and wide I/O bandwidth to support both memory- and data-intensive
applications and databases. Built-in capacity for up to eight 3.5-inch or 16 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.
Simplified systems management, without compromise
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 installed.
OpenManage iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller integrates and connects to leading third-party
systems management solutions (such as those from Microsoft, VMware and BMC Software), so users
can maintain a single point of control and capitalize on an existing systems management investment.
OpenManage simplifies the lifecycle of deploying, updating, monitoring and maintaining Dell
PowerEdge servers.

6 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
New technologies
Table 1 summarizes the newest technologies used in the Dell PowerEdge T420 tower server.
Table 1. New technologies
New technology
Detailed description
Intel Xeon processor
E5-2400 product family
This family of Intel processors has embedded PCIe lanes for improved I/O
performance. See the Processor section for details.
Intel C602 series chipset
The Intel Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chip is implemented on the T420 server.
1600MT/s DDR3
memory
Certain models of the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 series support 1600MT/s
memory. The T420 supports two DIMMs per channel at 1600MT/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 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 virtual desktop
infrastructure (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 enables Dell's unique failsafe virtualization
architecture, ensuring uptime by providing failover capability for embedded
hypervisors such as VMware®vSphere®ESXi™. See the Supported virtualization
section for details.
Fan fault tolerance
Failure of one fan rotor is tolerated through increasing fan speeds. This feature
helps reduce downtime by allowing you to schedule a fan replacement within 360
hours of a fan failure.

7 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
2System features
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, soft fault-tolerant fans, and optional features such as
redundant high-efficiency power supplies and hot-plug hard drives.
Comparison of PowerEdge systems
The 12th generation PowerEdge T420 server replaces the T410. Table 2 compares some of the T420
features to those of the T410.
Table 2. Comparing the PowerEdge T410 to PowerEdge T420
Feature
PowerEdge T410
PowerEdge T420
Chassis
5U tower
5U rackable tower1
Processors
Intel Xeonprocessors 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
Dell OpenManage
Systems Management
Dell OpenManage
Lifecycle Controller 1.x
iDRAC6 (Express or Enterprise) with
Lifecycle Controller
OpenManage Essentials
OMSA Agent
OpenManage Power Center (requires iDRAC7
Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller)
OpenManage Integrations and Connections
Basic management (standard option)
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.

8 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Specifications
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/PowerEdge.
Table 3. Technical specifications
Feature
PowerEdge T420 technical specification
Form factor
5U rackable tower1
Processors
Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family
Processor sockets
2 sockets
Internal interconnect
1 Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) link: 6.4GT/s, 7.2GT/s, 8.0GT/s
Cache
2.5MB per core with core options of 4, 6, or 8
Chipset
Intel C602
Memory2
Up to 384GB (12 DIMM slots): 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB DDR3 up to 1600MT/s
PCIe slots
6 PCIe slots
2 x16 slots with x16 bandwidth, 3.0, full-height, full-length
1 x8 slot with x4 bandwidth, 3.0, full-height, half-length
1 x8 slot with x4 bandwidth, 2.0, full-height, half-length
1 x8 slot with x4 bandwidth, 3.0, full-height, full-length
1 x8 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 1GbE Dual Port LOM

9 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Feature
PowerEdge T420 technical specification
I/O adapter options
1Gb Ethernet:
Broadcom 5720 Dual Port 1Gb Base-T
Broadcom 5719 Quad Port 1Gb Base-T
Intel I350 Dual Port 1Gb Base-T
Intel I350 Quad Port 1Gb Base-T
10Gb Converged Ethernet:
Brocade®BR1020 Dual Port 10Gb SPF+
QLogic®QLE8262 Dual Port 10Gb DA/SFP+
Broadcom 57810S Dual Port 10Gb Base-T
Broadcom 57810S Dual Port 10Gb DA/SFP+
10Gb Ethernet:
Intel X520 Dual Port 10Gb DA/SFP+
Intel X540 Dual Port 10Gb Base-T
FC8/FC4 HBA:
QLogic QLE2460 Single Port 4Gbps
QLogic QLE2462 Dual Port 4Gbps
QLogic QLE2560 Single Port 8Gbps
QLogic QLE2562 Dual Port 8Gbps
Emulex®LPe-12000-E Single Port 8Gbps
Emulex LPe-12002-E Dual Port 8Gbps
Brocade 815 Single Port 8Gbps
Brocade 825 Dual Port 8Gbps
Power supply
Platinum efficiency 495W, 750W or 1100W power supply
Silver efficiency cabled 550W power supply
Auto-ranging power supplies
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 partitioning
Dell OpenManage
Systems Management
(Agent-free or with
OpenManage Server
Administrator [OMSA]
Agent)
OpenManage Essentials
OMSA Agent
OpenManage Power Center (requires iDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle
Controller)
OpenManage Integrations and Connections:
>OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft®System Center
>OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter™
>Connections for HP®Operations Manager, IBM®Tivoli®Netcool®and
CA Network and Systems Management
Basic management (standard option)
>Upgrade to iDRAC7 (Express or Enterprise) with Lifecycle Controller
>Upgrade to 8GB vFlash media or 16GB vFlash media for iDRAC7
Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller
>Trial evaluations available for IDRAC7 (Express and Enterprise) with
Lifecycle Controller
Rack support
ReadyRails™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®2012
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V®)

10 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Feature
PowerEdge T420 technical specification
Microsoft Windows®Small Business Server 2011
Novell®SUSE®Linux®Enterprise Server
Red Hat®Enterprise Linux
Optional embedded hypervisors:
Citrix®XenServer®
VMware vSphere including ESXi
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.

11 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
3Chassis views and features
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 Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Chassis views
Table 4 lists the possible chassis configurations available for the T420.
Table 4. Chassis configurations
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
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 1. Front view 16-drive bay without bezel
Figure 2 shows the optional lockable bezel on the front of the T420 chassis.

12 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Figure 2. Front view with bezel
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.
Figure 3. Back view
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.

13 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Figure 4. Internal view
Figure 5 shows the front view of the rackable T420 chassis without a bezel.
Figure 5. Rackable front view without bezel

14 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Chassis features
Table 5 lists the various features on the T420. For additional information, see the Dell PowerEdge
T420 Systems Owner’s Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Table 5. Chassis features
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 16 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; one port on the back of the tower chassis
or a port on both the front and back of the rack chassis
LCD panel and buttons
Displays system ID, status information, and system error messages;
two navigation butons on the hot-plug chassis 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

15 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Front control panel
Figure 6 shows the T420 control panel, located on the front of the chassis. For more information
about the LCD control panel, see the Dell PowerEdge T420 Systems Owner’s Manual on
Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Figure 6. LCD control panel
Quick Resource Locator
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.
Figure 7. QRL location
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.

16 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Security features
The latest generation of PowerEdge servers has the features listed in Table 6 to help ensure the
security of your data center.
Table 6. Security features
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 protects unauthorized access to the hard drives and optical
drive. Although the bezel has an open area to allow access to the tape backup in
bay 2, the rest of the system remains locked. 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.

17 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
4Processor
The Dell PowerEdge T420 features the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 series, 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.
Processor features
The new Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 series provides the following features:
2-socket processor design with power and dimensions optimized for density
Up to eight execution cores per processor
Intel Hyper-Threading technology enabling up to 16 computational threads
Micro-architecture on 32nm process for greater performance per watt
Support for more memory —four additional DIMMs (up to 12 DIMM slots) and support for up to
32GB DIMMs increasing the memory capacity from 128GB to 384GB
Integrated memory controller with three channels of DDR3 and 46-bit physical addressing
facilitating 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 1600MT/s memory and
8.0GT/s QPI
Intel Data Direct I/O (DDIO) allowing 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 allowing faster access to the 20MB
multi-banked last level cache
Intel Advanced Vector Extensions offering 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,
delivering up to double the boost than the previous generation
Continued improvements to both Intel TXT and AES-NI helping to better protect systems and
data
For more information on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 series, visit Intel.com.
Supported processors
Table 7 lists the Intel Xeon processors supported by the PowerEdge T420. For the latest information
on supported processors, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.

18 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
Table 7. Supported processors
Model
Speed
TDP
Cache
Cores/
threads
QPI
Max
memory
speed
Turbo
E5-2450
2.1GHz
95W
20MB
8/16
8.0GT/s
1600MT/s
Yes
E5-2440
2.4GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2430L
2.0GHz
60W
15MB
6/12
7.2GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2430
2.2GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2420
1.9GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2GT/s
1333MT/s
Yes
E5-2407
2.4GHz
80W
10MB
4/4
6.4GT/s
1066MT/s
NA
E5-2403
1.8GHz
80W
10MB
4/4
6.4GT/s
1066MT/s
NA
For information on processor installation and configuration, see the Dell PowerEdge T420 Systems
Owner’s Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
GPU support
The T420 supports GPU technology, providing accelerated performance for a variety of applications
such as VDI and medical imaging.
GPU cards
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.
GPU configuration options
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
Operating system support for GPUs
Some operating systems have not been validated to support GPUs. See Table 20 for more
information on operating system support of GPUs.
Chipset
The Intel C602 chipset is implemented on the PowerEdge T420. For more information, visit
Intel.com.

19 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
5Memory
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 384GB of memory with speeds of up to 1600MT/s, providing high performance in a variety of
applications. The new reliability, availability and 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.
Supported memory
The T420 supports the memory technologies shown in Table 8.
Table 8. Memory technologies supported
Feature
UDIMM
RDIMM
Register
No
Yes
Buffer
No
No
Frequencies*
800, 1066, 1333, or 1600MT/s
800, 1066, 1333, or 1600MT/s
Ranks supported
1 or 2
1, 2, or 4
Capacity per DIMM
2 or 4GB
2, 4, 8, 16, or 32GB
Maximum DIMMs per channel
2
2
DRAM technology
x8
x4 or x8
Temperature sensor
Yes
Yes
Error Correction Code (ECC)
Yes
Yes
Single Device Disable Code
(SDDC)
Yes (with advanced ECC mode)
Yes
Address parity
Yes
Yes
*Although the T420 supports DIMM speeds of 800MT/s and 1066MT/s, you can only purchase this system with DIMM
speeds of 1333MT/s and 1600MT/s on Dell.com/PowerEdge.

20 PowerEdge T420 Technical Guide
The T420 supports the DIMMs listed in Table 9. For the latest information on supported memory,
visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Table 9. DIMMs supported
Capacity
(GB)
Speed
(MT/s)
Type
Ranks per
DIMM
Data
width
SDDC support
Voltage
2
1333
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1600
UDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1600
RDIMM
1
X8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
1
x4
All modes
1.35
4
1600
UDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
UDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1600
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
8
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
8
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
32
1333
RDIMM
4
x4
All modes
1.35
Memory configurations
The T420 supports flexible memory configurations ranging from capacities of 2GB to
384GB. The system supports up to six DIMMs per processor (up to 12 DIMMs in a two-processor
configuration). The T420 has three memory channels per processor, with each channel supporting
up to two 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 Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Memory speed
The T420 supports memory speeds of 1600MT/s, 1333MT/s, 1066MT/s and 800MT/s depending on
the DIMM types installed and the configuration. All memory on all processors and channels run at