I am thinking, then, for this build, perhaps I should set it up using
Ubuntu Server. I will need to get my system to recognise the RAID drives
as well.
So before I jump in the deep end again, are there any "gotchas" of which
I should be aware.
Will the server version make life more reliable?
Under the hood they're identical i.e. same kernel, same core system apps etc. They differ in that the desktop versions have GUIs installed by default and come pre-packaged with desktop focused everyday use apps, whereas the server version doesn't.
During installation of the server version you usually select a role for the server (or not) e.g. LAMP, mail, print, samba etc. You don't get a GUI and typically administer it via CLI over SSH. Nor do you get all the other guff that comes with a desktop version, so in some respect it's relatively clean.
You can then add a GUI if you so wish. Each to their own, depends on what *you* want to do with it.