$602.78In Stock — Usually Ships in 1–3 Business Days
About the U794K
Dell part number U794K identifies the U794K - Dell 3.5-inch 12-Bay Hard Drive Backplane for PowerVault Md1200, an enterprise-grade Storage Devices Miscellaneous unit appropriate for data-center, server-room, and workstation deployment. Technical specifications include form factor of 3.5-inch. 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 supplies the U794K to US business buyers. Stocked units ship in 1–3 business days. Pro Disk Network applies a 90-day functional warranty. Free US ground shipping on orders over $150.
The U794K is a Dell storage devices miscellaneous component with form factor 3.5-inch. Pro Disk Network sells the U794K for $602.78 with US shipping in 1–3 business days and a 30-day return guarantee.
Quick Answer: Will the U794K work with my RAID controller?
The U794K 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 U794K ship?
Pro Disk Network usually dispatches the U794K in 1–3 business days. Multi-pallet projects requiring crating ship within 2 business days. International shipping (Canada, Mexico, EU, APAC) takes 3-7 business days via DHL Express or FedEx International Priority.
The U794K 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.
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 U794K?
The U794K is a Dell enterprise-grade hard drive with form factor 3.5-inch, manufactured by Dell. Pro Disk Network ships this part new and certified-refurbished from our US warehouse with dispatch in 1–3 business days, backed by a 30-day return guarantee.
Pros & Cons of U794K
Pros
US shipping in 1–3 business days from our US warehouse
Cons
Not recommended for OLTP databases above 50 TPS
Mechanical drive — expect 5–10W idle power per unit
3.5" form factor only — confirm caddy fit before ordering
Frequently Asked Questions about U794K
Is the U794K a genuine Dell part?
Yes. Pro Disk Network sources every U794K 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 U794K work with my RAID controller?
The U794K 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 U794K ship?
Pro Disk Network usually dispatches the U794K in 1–3 business days. Multi-pallet projects requiring crating ship within 2 business days. International shipping (Canada, Mexico, EU, APAC) takes 3-7 business days via DHL Express or FedEx International Priority.
What is the warranty on the U794K?
New U794K 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 U794K?
Email sales@prodisknetwork.com with the quantity and target ship date for a quote within one business day.
Pro Disk Network Buyer’s Guide: Storage Devices Miscellaneous
How to Pick the Right Drive Capacity for Your Use Case
If the U794K is going into a RAID array, choose RAID 6 over RAID 5 for any capacity tier built from drives larger than 4 TB. The probability of a second drive failing during rebuild from a 6+ TB rebuild window is high enough that single-parity is no longer responsible. For all-flash arrays, RAID 10 still wins on write-amplification-sensitive workloads (OLTP databases, VDI write-cache).
Drive Health Monitoring: SMART, Workload Rating, and Predictive Failure
Once the U794K is in production, the single most impactful operational practice is SMART monitoring tied to your existing alerting stack. SMART attributes 187 (reported uncorrectable errors), 197 (current pending sector count), and 198 (offline uncorrectable sector count) are the leading indicators of impending drive failure. Alert on non-zero values, not just on absolute thresholds; once these attributes leave zero, the drive has typically 30-90 days of useful life remaining.