Would XP Media Center Edition Hurt Performance?

[MANmitch]

This may sound like a stupid question, but I remember when I bought a Media Center PC a long time ago, and it seemed to have a lot of other processes and programs running in the backround (like ehrec.exe) that slowed performance.
I'm not sure if Media Center 2005 is currently open to normal consumers, but I was able to get the system from a computer builder, who owns a private company.
Should have I just gotten Windows XP Pro?
Or perhaps x64 (but it seems that it is not up to par in gaming performance yet)

[chunkylover77]

From what I understand which is admittedly very little, MCE is just a bloated version of XP Pro. It is basically XP Pro with some apps thrown on top. If you are building an all around computer that will be used to watch TV and web browsing and gaming then MCE is probably a decent choice.

[MANmitch]

Alright good. Would it hurt benchmark performance?
I'm looking for top overclocking performance...

[chunkylover77]

I think it would as it would have alot of processes running. The top benching os is W2K. Just to overclock though I would think it would be about the same as XP pro. Just shut down the added processes if you want to bench.

[masterofpuppets]

If you want best benching performance, I would say get Win2k3 and disable the server bloat, or if you can't afford it (or have the internet connection to download the eval), Win2k. WinXP MCE adds alot of useless bloat to XP, which is already bloted enough as it is.