Hi guys after much googling this appears to be the best place to ask this question
I currently have an old PC that i am using as Home server basically it holds my hard drives with all my media on it and then i share it across the network currently it is just running windows 7 as that is what i was running when it was my main workstation
however i am now using another computer with Windows 8.1 Pro and i have had no troubles so the question i am wondering is
should i upgrade to either Windows 8.1 Pro for my Home Server or should i get Windows Server 2012 at first i was thinking Server 2012 because running a server something that will run 24/7 will probably be better in terms of stability and best Uptime using Server Focused OS
however after reading several articles it seems a lot of people say using Windows 8.1 pro is a good choice not only cause it is cheaper but has a lot of server related utlities
now i am not a hardcore server enthusiast like a lot of people on here i am sure what i basically want is a networked machine to share my files i keep offline backups on Identical sized hard drives so not really interested in RAID or anything as i perform backups 1 - 2 times a week
as it is in a home environment i don't need bulletproof security even though it has a internet connection
So all this aside can someone recommend if the Server 2012 is even worth it or would Windows 8.1 do what i need it to
would i have any benefits by using the Server 2012 like better performance or lower power consumption or any sort of enhanced reliability as i understand it they are the same core underneath simply with a few tweaks (correct me if i am wrong on this)
i am just confused on which direction to take