I am running Hyper-V 2012 R2 and need a server OS to host processes for both a network share and a torrent client. I don't need it ultra minimalist as I have resources to spare for this, but the more left over for other VMs the better. Something easy for an entry-mid range user to set up. What base OS should I look into, and what packages? I am leaning towards transmission and samba, but am open to all suggestions.

ditch MS and use this instead:

http://www.redhat.com/products/cloud...irtualization/

Unfortunately, ditching MS is not an option. It is required for work.

I use Debian with Transmission and Samba for that, easy to install, plenty of documentation.

then toss MS into the VM and again use a real proper server class OS to be the host.

if that is still not an option, then do keep in mind that you will continue to see sever performance issues due to the MS host so the VMs will be slower then expected and will crash much more often as well as have other performance issues like disconnecting from the vLAN etc...

There are 4 good choices.

1. RHEL (or CentOS if you want to support it yourself and not pay for the SLA)
2. Slackware, no support here so you will be on your own
3. SuSe Enterprise (buy the SLA)
4. Debian, again no support here you will be on your own.