HPE ProLiant Compute XD685 vs Dell PowerEdge XE9680: 8-GPU AI Training Server Comparison

Both are 8-GPU AI training servers with fully NVLink-interconnected accelerators. The XD685 uses dual AMD EPYC 9005 CPUs and a direct-liquid-cooling-first 5U design that also supports NVIDIA Blackwell (B200/B300). The XE9680 uses dual Intel Xeon CPUs in a 6U air-cooled chassis with the broadest accelerator menu, while its XE9680L sibling adds 4U liquid-cooled Blackwell density.

The HPE ProLiant Compute XD685 supports eight NVIDIA B200 and B300 (Blackwell Ultra) GPUs directly, alongside H200 and AMD MI355X. Dell delivers Blackwell HGX B200 primarily through the liquid-cooled PowerEdge XE9680L variant rather than the air-cooled XE9680, which centers on H100, H200, MI300X, and Intel Gaudi 3.

Not necessarily. The XD685 is designed liquid-cooling-first but offers air-cooling for NVIDIA H200 configurations, while the Dell XE9680 is an air-cooled 6U node. For Blackwell-class GPUs, both vendors lean on direct liquid cooling, the XD685 in its 5U DLC chassis and Dell via the XE9680L.

For new Blackwell-based training pods that can adopt liquid cooling, the XD685 offers high density and AMD EPYC memory bandwidth to keep GPUs fed. For teams that need H200 training nodes running in an existing air-cooled facility today, the XE9680 gets a cluster online faster. The right pick depends on cooling readiness and accelerator roadmap.

The HPE ProLiant Compute XD685 uses two AMD EPYC 9005 Series processors (Turin) with up to 96 cores per socket and 12 DDR5 channels per CPU. The Dell PowerEdge XE9680 uses two 4th or 5th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors across 32 DDR5 DIMM slots, supporting up to 4 TB of memory.

Both connect to high-speed back-end fabrics (InfiniBand or RoCE Ethernet) for multi-node training. HPE integrates the XD685 into its rack-scale AI factory and Cray-lineage cluster tooling, and Dell integrates the XE9680 into its AI Factory reference architectures with NVIDIA AI Enterprise. Cluster networking, storage, and scheduler choices typically matter more than the node itself at scale.

Yes. As an authorized HPE reseller we can source TAA-compliant HPE ProLiant Compute XD685 configurations through federal vehicles such as GPC, SAP, FAR, and GSA eBuy, and we can also quote Dell PowerEdge XE9680 systems. We help federal, SLED, healthcare, and enterprise buyers match configurations, lead times, and compliance requirements to the right contract.

The air-cooled Dell PowerEdge XE9680 is generally easier to deploy where there is no facility liquid-cooling loop, since it relies on standard air cooling in a 6U chassis. The XD685 can also be air-cooled with H200 GPUs, but its strongest configurations and Blackwell options assume direct liquid cooling, which may require facility upgrades.