Windows 7 or 8 64 bit for music only

Windoze is for chumps

Notec... I only used Windows (not Mac mini) in prison (killed a guy in a bar fight)... did you call me a chump ?

with digital, newest/latest and greatest is usually the best option. same with windows. i use win 7 not 8 yet.

If you go with 8.1, download and install a free program called Classic Shell. It puts a start button on desktop view. With that in place, you will be able to use OS.

Consider Windows Server 2012, which is server version of Win 8. WS2012 plus the Optimizer results in an outstanding improvement. The interface of WS is just like Windows.

Check out computeraudiophile.com and the jplay forum within the computer audio section.
Note: I don't run JPlay ( for now); just WS+Optimizer+JRiver.