RLN36 NVR Mounting Hard Drives

colovin

RLN36 ships with no hard drives and also with no instruction on how to mount something that absolutely has to happen. Seems like it would be part the quick start guide because you aren't getting started without the hard drives mounted. I guess you can figure it out by why should you have to?

I'm only mounting 2 drives. I have drive 1 on the left most side. I'll put drive 2 in the center position or maybe to the right for better cooling. Power cord is a bit tight on drive 1 but it fits. Now the big question??? On the left part of the board there is a pair of SATA cables next to each other. Then on the right side of the board there is a 3rd. I am going to assume that with 2 drives, I'm going to be using the pair of SATA cables and that the one on the right would be for a 3rd drive???? Is this best practice for 2 drives?

Why do I need to assume anything? Why isn't there some short blurb somewhere about something that has to be done with this unit? If I were only mounting 1 drive which cable would I use? Does it matter? If there are instructions out there, it is well hidden because I've been searching for the answer. Hopefully if someone answers this question it will be a guide for someone else in the future trying to correctly mount drives on a RLN36 NVR.

bg

All good questions I would like answers for as well, but I have another issue.

The supplied screws to mount the hard drive (or what I assume are the screws to mount the hard drives, seeing as there are no instructions provided regarding this). First, there are only 5 screws, when I would expect there to be 12 (4 screws per drive, 3 drives total) Second, after attempting to mount the first drive using 4 of the screws, I was left with it not really being secured. It is screwed in all the way, but still really loose and moves around a lot in the chassis. This is not good, especially for mechanical drives.

Darren

I have just received an RLN36 and have exactly the same questions. I couldn't find a video or any tech note online. Looks like I'm going to have to contact support too. Crazy!

I am testing a RLN16-410 and a RLN36. The RLN16 has ridiculously loud whiny fan noise and the RLN36 has 2 ridiculously loud whiny fans. The old RLN8-410-E that I'm replacing was completely whisper quiet: what a backwards step in design. My home office is quite small and I keep an eye on all my cameras during the day here and all my camera cables terminate in this room so I have no other placement options for the NVR.

I noticed a YT video which recommended replacing the fan in the RLN16-410 with a quieter Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX. However, there I noticed a significant design flaw with the RLN16-410 - the HD power connector and cables sit right next to the fan and block half the airflow. Worse still, the connector sits directly in line with the CPU heatsink, which blocks direct air flow to it.

The RLN36 has more space and no such design flaw. I'm going to try fitting 2 of the 20mm deep and more efficient Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX in this chassis. According to the specifications, it can be set to 5,000/4,400/3,700 RPM with noise levels of 14.9/12.2/8.5 db(A) respectively. By comparison, the 10mm deep NF-A4x10 FLX has options for 4,500/3,700 RPM for 17.9/12.9 db(A) respectively.

It's crazy that we have to hack the hardware to make the product to the same standard as the old NVR they replaced.

See attached picture for the HD power connector blocking half the fan.

Hope that helps!

G.Gould

My RLN36 (purchased May 2024) came with 3 small bags containing 5 screws each. I used 4 screws to mount one 3.5" SATA drive. This other page numbers each of the 3 SATA cables inside the NVR (with #1 on the left-side when viewing from the front). I am hoping more airflow could pass through the vents on the left and right sides of the NVR if I mount my one HDD in the center position ("HDD2"). (I have no thermal experience. I'm just guessing.) The NVR booted and operates just fine with a single HDD in the center position ("HDD2").