Dell part number U408R identifies the U408R - Dell 500GB 5400RPM SATA 2.5-inch Hard Drive, an enterprise-grade Laptop Hard Drive unit appropriate for data-center, server-room, and workstation deployment. Technical specifications include capacity of 500 GB, spindle speed of 5,400 RPM, form factor of 2.5-inch, interface of SATA. Typical workloads include VMware ESXi datastores, Veeam / Rubrik / Cohesity backup repositories, RDBMS data files (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle), and log-tier storage for Splunk and Elastic. Pro Disk Network maintains the U408R in our enterprise inventory and verifies each unit against manufacturer datasheet specifications prior to listing. New stock ships factory-sealed where available; refurbished units are tested under load before dispatch and ship with a 90-day Pro Disk Network functional warranty. Same-day dispatch on in-stock orders placed before 3pm ET; free standard ground shipping on US orders over $150.
The U408R is a Dell laptop hard drive component with capacity 500 GB, spindle speed 5,400 RPM, form factor 2.5-inch. Pro Disk Network sells the U408R for $246.32 with same-day US shipping and a 30-day return guarantee.
Quick Answer: Will the U408R work with my RAID controller?
The U408R operates with any standard SAS/SATA/NVMe-compatible RAID controller (Dell PERC, HPE Smart Array, LSI/Broadcom MegaRAID, Adaptec, IBM ServeRAID, Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID). Mixing this drive in the same RAID volume with drives of different speed/capacity is supported but never recommended.
How fast does the U408R ship?
U408R orders placed before 3 pm ET ship the same business day from US warehouses. Delivery is next business day to most metro ZIPs via FedEx/UPS overnight; ground delivery covers remaining US in 1-4 business days.
The U408R is deployed by US enterprises, MSPs, government, and education customers across multiple infrastructure scenarios. Below are the most common deployment patterns Pro Disk Network sees in real-world orders.
Veeam Backup Repository — Cost-optimised backup target for Veeam B&R, Rubrik, or Cohesity primary backup tier. RAID 6 over 8–24 drives delivers 100+ TB usable per server.
Splunk Warm/Cold Tier — Appropriate for Splunk warm/cold/frozen indexes where ingest write rates are below 200 MB/s per node. Avoid for hot-tier indexes — use NVMe instead.
File Server / SMB Shares — General-purpose Windows Server / Samba shares for departmental file storage. RAID 5 for capacity, RAID 10 for IOPS-sensitive workloads.
Object Storage (Ceph / MinIO) — JBOD presentation behind Ceph OSDs or MinIO erasure-coded pools. Mix with NVMe metadata drives for production object stores.
What is the U408R?
The U408R is a Dell enterprise-grade hard drive with capacity 500 GB and spindle speed 5,400 RPM, manufactured by Dell. Pro Disk Network ships this part new and certified-refurbished from our US warehouse with same-day dispatch on orders placed before 3 PM ET, backed by a 30-day return guarantee.
Pros & Cons of U408R
Pros
Same-day US shipping from our US warehouse
Cons
Designed for capacity tier, not write-intensive cache
Not a drop-in for desktop NAS without verifying caddy
Some firmware revs locked to specific RAID-controller families
Frequently Asked Questions about U408R
Is the U408R a genuine Dell part?
Yes. Pro Disk Network sources every U408R as factory-original Dell inventory. New units arrive sealed in OEM packaging; refurbished units are pulled from decommissioned Dell servers, surface-tested, and re-warranted by Pro Disk Network for 90 days.
Will the U408R work with my RAID controller?
The U408R operates with any standard SAS/SATA/NVMe-compatible RAID controller (Dell PERC, HPE Smart Array, LSI/Broadcom MegaRAID, Adaptec, IBM ServeRAID, Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID). Mixing this drive in the same RAID volume with drives of different speed/capacity is supported but never recommended.
How fast does the U408R ship?
U408R orders placed before 3 pm ET ship the same business day from US warehouses. Delivery is next business day to most metro ZIPs via FedEx/UPS overnight; ground delivery covers remaining US in 1-4 business days.
What is the warranty on the U408R?
New U408R units carry the full Dell manufacturer warranty (typically 1 to 5 years depending on product line). Refurbished and bulk-OEM units include a Pro Disk Network advance-replacement warranty (90 days refurbished). DOA replacement is free within 30 days of receipt.
Do you offer bulk pricing for the U408R?
Email sales@prodisknetwork.com with the quantity and target ship date for a quote within one business day.
How to Pick the Right Drive Capacity for Your Use Case
For VMware vSAN deployments, the U408R is best deployed in the capacity tier with NVMe cache drives in front. Size the cache layer at 10% of usable capacity for write-intensive workloads and 5% for read-leaning workloads. For Veeam backup repositories, plan around 1.5× the size of your protected estate to allow for incremental forever chains plus synthetic fulls. Splunk warm tier sizing should follow the daily ingest rate × retention days × 1.6 compression overhead.
Drive Health Monitoring: SMART, Workload Rating, and Predictive Failure
For VMware ESXi 8 hosts, enable vSphere's predictive-failure analysis on the U408R via the host's storage device list. The host queries SMART on a regular cadence and surfaces yellow/red warnings in vCenter before the drive fails outright. On Linux, use smartctl piped to your monitoring system; on Windows Server, Storage Spaces exposes health state directly in Server Manager.