windows 8.1 or server on laptop...good idea?

[Aivis_]

Soo..I have ACER laptop with these specs..
6th gen core i5 6200U 2 cores with hyperthreathing 2.3GHz
4gb DDR3
Intel HD520 AND Gforce 940M
so i want to reinstall Windows 8.1...but it eats a lot of ram...currently eating 2.6Gb ram while i use internet Explorer and Skype...so i started up a VM with a server 2012 R2 and it eated only 600-900 mb ram with chrome oppened 2 tabs. So maybe i should install server 2012 not Windows 8.1
i need security, becouse my roommates are ass*oles and play dumb jokes with me and i need max performance in gaming so more free ram is better.

so my real questions here..
do Windows server 2012 can use Intel HD and 940M for rendering(just like my current Windows 8.1)
can Server 2012 use wifi?
And i need custome made or diffirent drivers for server 2012?

sorry for bad grammar

 

[USAFRet]

Running in a VM is not the same as running on the native hardware.

Server 2012 can be used as a desktop OS, but if you install it on the actual hardware, it will use up at least as much RAM as Win 8.1.

 

[clarkjd]

Are you running a 32-bit version of Win8.1, or the 64-bit version?If the 64-bit version, you need more ram to take advantage of it. 64-bit with 4gb or less of ram actually will have less free ram than the 32-bit version.

 

[Aivis_]

well it came preinstalled with windows 10 64Bit...but i downgraded becouse it was slow after phew month use and i don't want to install windows 10 never ever. Couse i think it is unoptimized and slow.
i am using win 8.1 64 bit now and i know it don't use all of the RAM. There is problem with my drivers...64 bit only.. so i have to stick with 64 bit version

 

[USAFRet]

well it came preinstalled with windows 10 64Bit...but i downgraded becouse it was slow after phew month use and i don't want to install windows 10 never ever. Couse i think it is unoptimized and slow.
i am using win 8.1 64 bit now and i know it don't use all of the RAM. There is problem with my drivers...64 bit only.. so i have to stick with 64 bit version

The original OS was slow, because of all the preinstalled junkware that comes with prebuilt systems.
A clean install of Win 10 would run no slower than the 8.1 you've installed.

 

[Rhinofart]

I agree with USAFRet. The likely reason your new install of win 10 was slow was the bloat & crapware that OEMs stuff on there. You will find that a clean install of Win X will be better, and to be honest, it will likely perform better than your 8.1 install.