Outdoor/Rugged NVR Recommendation?

Good luck.

You are looking for what the US military (and the people who build stuff for them) calls "rugged conduction cooled components". Not only only that, but you want something on the most demanding end of that bell curve.

Rugged conduction cooled means active and extreme measures are taken to bleed off heat, as described here (linking does not equal endorsement, I've never heard of these guys but the white paper seems good), either because air cooling with passive measures like heat dissipation via design or active measures like fan cooling is insufficient, because air cooling introduces a new complication like dust, or in extremely small form factors where you simply don't have enough room for the amount of air you'd need to realistically cool the components.

Computer gamers do a similiar thing. High end gaming machines can get extremely hot, and you can literally cook your desktop playing computer games. Running tubing through your machine and pumping cooled water will allow you to shoot all the virtual Nazis you want without worrying about your fans, and is a lot quieter besides.

Generally speaking, it's easier to warm the computer than to cool it, at least at the level you're describing. A heating element in or on the PC is a trivial matter compared to the difficulty involved in bleeding heat.

If you're looking for a PC that can handle -40°C up to +80°C, the only guys I can think of who make a COTS unit is probably going to be GE. Assuming you have a government level budget for the project, of course.

I hope this helps.

Usually when I see some topic to make comment I don't because I won't shoot myself in the foot! But technically being American Serb I am also fluently bi-temperate, I speak F and C, often in the same sentence. And now here without anything remaining in my sleeves, i.e. no reference books or calculators, I am confidently predict that on the hot side 80C is about 175F and on the cold its a famous trick question since 40C is 40F. Although tough it might be tough luck because it cant work over 140F or under -20F according to the link you sent. Your own Frosty Snowman they say was a victim of just such misconversion. ;)

The temp range is between -40 to 80 C, there's a fair bit more to consider here than adding a heater!

Well, what do you do about heat? Warming the PC is relatively simple. Cooling the PC is much harder, a fan wouldn't do it at 80C (176F).

...all it's going to do is transfer heat from the PC case TO THE ENCLOSURE.

Yes, I believe that's the general idea.

Ethan, as I read OP requirement, it is for an NVR that can operate between two extreme temperatures. This Adlink unit operates within those ranges, how that range is maintained by the external enclosure is a seperate (and not asked question). See Duncan above. Please understand this is a sealed unit which dissipates self-heat via conduction thru a cold plate.

Moreover I think you are failing to appreciate the thermal magnitudes which are specified. When the enclosure is at 176F, the self-heat is just another heat vector to be managed. Bottom line its up to the enclosre to maintain (if it needs to) the temperature ranges, not the nvr's. Nor is the self-heat of the unit going to a factor when the enclosure is already at 176F!