Windows 7 or 10? For small home server

[Pico]

I'm planning to build a mini ITX PC with 2 WD Red 3Tb drives in RAID 1 to use it as a small home server running 24/7. Currently I'm using an old NAS200 from Linksys but the performance is very poor (maximum of 4,5 Mb/s read speed).

 

I'm basically will use it for file storage, streaming videos and torrent download sometimes. But I'm in doubt which version of windows should I use.

 

Should I use a W7 or W10?

 

PS: I already have a W7 Home Premium license that perhaps works (I've upgraded to Windows 10 on my desktop from this license).

[RollinLower]

why not something like FreeNAS? 

those OS's are actually made for these things, you know.

[Oshino Shinobu]

FreeNAS is a good option for what you want to do. You could look into unRAID too. I wouldn't recommend consumer/PC versions of Windows for fileservers, they're pretty lacking in terms of features. 

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

I run a plex server, few srcds servers, and a MC server for home usage. I regret using W10 over Ubuntu Desktop. I thought it would be soooo hard, but I made a VM with Ubuntu on it and dammmnn.. It's easy to use. W10 is so bloated with useless shit not needed for a home server.

 

If you think running a 'Linux server' is difficult. It isn't.. easy transition and I am a noob.

[Pico]

So many doubts about what I should do...

I want a reliable and fast file storage system but I know that a regular mini ITX desktop won't be reliable. But its the cheapest option.

I think that if I go with FreeNAS I will have to use a server motherboard/cpu and ECC RAM. And mini ITX server motherboards are hard to find.

 

I'm from Brazil and there are no server ITX boards available here, and even regular ITX boards are hard to find. I’m planning to go to USA later in this year and buy the hardware there.

 

I was thinking of building this PC:

ThermalTake Core V1 Case

SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W

Intel Core i3-6300 Dual Core Processor 3.8GHz LGA1151

Gigabyte GA-H110N LGA1151

HyperX FURY Black 16GB Kit (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 (HX421C14FBK2/16)

Sandisk Plus 120 GB

2x Western Digital RED 3Tb

Should this PC work with FreeNAS?

[jafico1]

Yes, that should be sufficient - your PC fulfills all of the recommended specifications, although the only thing lacking is ECC RAM as the motherboard doesn't support. It depends on what you're using it for - for a home server, not having ECC RAM is not a huge problem TBH.

 

• Multicore 64-bit processor
• 16GB Boot Drive (USB Flash Drive suffices)
• 16GB (ECC Recommended)
• At least 2 direct attached disks (Hardware RAID strongly discouraged)
  • For best results, see FreeBSD Hardware Compatibility List for Supported Disk Controllers
• Drives designed for NAS (such as WD Red drives) are recommended.
• At least one physical network port (Intel Recommended)
  • For best results, see FreeBSD Hardware Compatibility List for Supported Ethernet Chipsets