Worth Swapping my H100 for a H80i?

[t0mmy44]

Howdy guys! I'm trying to decide whether this course of action is worth considering. Before you immediately say one way or the other, here's the circumstances:

Main PC: Prodigy case, H100 roof mounted, i7-3770K OC'd to 4.5, Windows 7
- Cannot have an optical drive
- With a H80i mounted to the back, I can install an optical drive. Also, after installing one for a friend, I fell in love with Corsair Link lol it's actually somewhat useful, and absent on the H100
- A proper damn optical drive would be nice, since I buy CDs and rip with EAC rather than buy online/iTunes
- My external Optical drive (slimline) has reliability issues particularly with this PC for some reason (causes EAC to hang, become unkillable etc etc, the system doesn't like it sometimes!) but not with other PCs

Server: Define R4, currently got a CM V8, C2D E8400 OC'd to 4.0, Ubuntu 13.04
- Can roof mount a H100 with no major issues from what I can tell, as long as I offset it to the side. Mobo is older, RAM doesn't reach right to the top
- Currently housing my nice Samsung blu ray drive (mammary glands on a chicken - utterly useless unless I start using my server to rip discs)
- Not sure about running EAC in wine working, or a native app that is as accurate and reliable (and useful/well designed interface, database integration etc.)

So what do you say, LTT forum? Is it worth swapping, or should I just deal with it, possibly get a better external or use my server to rip? Never thought this dilemma would continue to plague me after 6 months uptime!

EDIT (for clarity):
The plan would be to take the H100 from the Main PC, and install it in the Server, and put a new H80i into the Main PC so I can transfer my optical drive into it from the Server. 

[Ghost]

Server =/= watercooling.

 

Watercooling is not made for servers. :( No reason why it shouldn't work but that is just the consensus. 

[t0mmy44]

Server =/= watercooling.

 

Watercooling is not made for servers. :( No reason why it shouldn't work but that is just the consensus. 

Why would the fact that a machine runs 24/7 and has some network services running preclude it from being cooled with an AIO WC kit? Especially when it's Overclocked, and running inside a silence optimized case? Thanks for the reply, I just don't understand how that is necessarily a logical conclusion to make just on the fact that it's called a Server.. :S 

[Ghost]

Why would the fact that a machine runs 24/7 and has some network services running preclude it from being cooled with an AIO WC kit? Especially when it's Overclocked, and running inside a silence optimized case? Thanks for the reply, I just don't understand how that is necessarily a logical conclusion to make just on the fact that it's called a Server.. :S 

I do not fully understand this either, I am quite literally passing on information.

 

For my very basic understanding of servers they are made to be run 24/7 and meant to be very stable. That in my eyes means no overclocking for stability. Running for 24/7 is not something water coolers excel at in comparison to air coolers. The water in water-coolers goes up in temperature slowly until it reaches equilibrium, most of the time load is taken off the CPU before it does so it slowly goes back down again. Air coolers get air at roughly the same temp constantly so it is a more consistent performance. And plus air coolers should be able to cope with any non-overclocked CPU.

 

What I said, may or may not be true but it makes logical sense as to why it is not recommended.

[Whaler_99]

Unless you looking to spend money, or really get a H80i, then I would pass. I run a folding 7/24 system that is water cooled and as Ghost explained the issue exactly, there is no chance for the water to cool down and for components to regulate. My res actually cracked a seal, most likely because of the high, constant temps. 

 

Now, the AiO do use glycol which may better handle the 7/24 heat, but don't expect much better temps then your decent air cooler...

[t0mmy44]

Unless you looking to spend money, or really get a H80i, then I would pass. I run a folding 7/24 system that is water cooled and as Ghost explained the issue exactly, there is no chance for the water to cool down and for components to regulate. My res actually cracked a seal, most likely because of the high, constant temps. 

 

Now, the AiO do use glycol which may better handle the 7/24 heat, but don't expect much better temps then your decent air cooler...

Excellent response to whether watercooling works in 24/7 setups, and citing an issue such as a seal cracking. Again, my server doesn't do anything intensive and is idling most of the time, so I don't see water temperatures being hugely problematic. The GPU in my server is extremely low end and passively cooled (it barely gets lukewarm), and the temps in my server on the whole are exceptionally low for an overclocked build in a silence optimised case.

 

However, I think the point of my thread has been missed: It's not about cooling my server, but about whether going from a H100 to a H80i is a bad/okay/fine move for the main PC, for the purposes of being able to fit an optical drive without sacrificing anything. Reusing the H100 in the server is a side-issue, not motivated by any sort of perceived performance increase but rather avoiding "wasting" a H100, and can't really see how it would be a problem in my scenario anyway (not folding, not publicly serving anything huge to lots of people, no heavy usage at home). So to clarify your post, when you suggest not bothering, do you mean you wouldn't bother *because* of the 24/7 WC issue? Or you wouldn't bother anyway due to cost/benefit, and you also wanted to clarify Ghost's point separately?

[LinusTech]

In a mission critical application, you want to reduce points of failure. A dual fan tower heatsink has one point of failure (fan) which can be doubled up on for redundancy.

 

A pre-filled liquid cooling kit has TWO points of failure (pump and fan) only one of which can be made redundant. Therefore it is not nearly as suitable for mission critical applications as a heatsink, regardless of server load or intended use.

[t0mmy44]

In a mission critical application, you want to reduce points of failure. A dual fan tower heatsink has one point of failure (fan) which can be doubled up on for redundancy.

 

A pre-filled liquid cooling kit has TWO points of failure (pump and fan) only one of which can be made redundant. Therefore it is not nearly as suitable for mission critical applications as a heatsink, regardless of server load or intended use.

Hello Linus! Agree completely with what you said (and did so before you said it). But the server's really not the point of my post, it's more about H80i vs. H100. Also, my server is not extremely mission critical. If the consensus is that a H80i is worth getting so I can fit optical, but a H100 is a danger to my server, then I'll probably just sell that off to someone else, and maybe chuck an NF-F12 in the V8 for a bit more cooling performance. 

So guys, the key question again: H80i - good enough compared to a H100 that it's not a huge sacrifice?