windows isn’t the problem. it can and will run all day, every day.

your existing box isn’t a server. it’s a desktop pc that you’re doing ‘server things’ on. you want a server, make it one:

move the retro gaming, the ‘shitposting’, the 3d design work, and the random internet use that goes with those things, off to a different pc. doesn’t even need to be that much of a pc. enough for the 3d work and emulators, and a fast lan port or wifi for accessing your ‘server’.

leave the existing one with the *rrs, the storage, the drivepool and snapraid… get everything else off. disable any oc settings you have enabled. it’s a server. then leave it alone.

it all runs on Windows 10 (which is where the issue arises)

what ‘issue’? your hardware should ‘officially’ support win11.

dl380-g7 is some really old stuff. 1st gen westmere. not very power efficient for the performance. there’s no hardware encoding (qsv with encoding started with some 2nd gen).

how well it can do software encoding would depend on the cpu. but don’t expect too much, and nothing more demanding than h264 avc at reasonable settings. you’d need a newer video card with hardware encoding for hevc, av1 or anything like that.

iirc there was a 6bay 3.5in option for those, and that cage/backplane might be available somewhere.