Dell PERC H355 RAID Controller Adapter

Dell PERC H355 Controller — Hardware RAID for PowerEdge 15th Generation

The Dell PERC H355 controller is Dell’s current-generation mid-range hardware RAID solution for PowerEdge 15th generation rack and tower servers. Built on the PCIe 4.0 bus, it replaces the PERC H330 and H730 series used in previous PowerEdge generations. The H355 brings a substantially larger 8GB DDR4 non-volatile DRAM cache compared to its predecessors at this price tier.

The Dell PERC H355 controller supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60 across up to 32 physical drives connected at 12Gbps SAS or 6Gbps SATA. RAID 6 and RAID 60 configurations tolerate two simultaneous drive failures. For arrays of twelve or more drives, this double-fault tolerance is relevant because the probability of a second drive failure during a RAID 5 rebuild period is statistically significant.

8GB Non-Volatile Cache

The 8GB DDR4 cache on the Dell PERC H355 controller absorbs write operations before they commit to disk, reducing the write penalty on parity RAID levels and improving random write latency for transactional database workloads. The cache is supercapacitor-protected rather than battery-backed. This eliminates the battery replacement cycle required by older PERC designs and reduces long-term maintenance overhead for the controller.

PCIe 4.0 and 15th Generation Compatibility

The Dell PERC H355 controller is specified for 15th generation PowerEdge servers including the R650, R750 and T550. These servers use PCIe 4.0 riser infrastructure. Administrators deploying new PowerEdge 15G infrastructure should specify the H355 rather than older PERC variants to ensure full compatibility, current firmware support and eligibility for Dell ProSupport coverage going forward. For servers using PCIe 3.0 risers, the H330 or H730P remain the appropriate selections.

Find all RAID controllers at Briggi Tech or review H355 details at Dell.