bloatware by definition is any software whether operating system or productivity or game software that occupies more diskspace than it actually needs to do the job it is designed to do.
Windows 7 comes in 4 flavours
- home
- professional
- ultimate
- enterprise
However, regardless of which version you want to install, you install of the components for enterprise and then unlock those features that you paid for with your install codes - by definition it is bloatware - there are more components installed on your hard drive than you need and some features cannot be disabled regardless of what your needs are. Put another way: XP Home has a totally different install setup to XP Pro and you cannot mix them to make a better install you have one or the other, not the worst of all worlds with no way to navigate and create what you need.
I would view putting together a music machine from the perspective of what software it has to run rather than what hardware is the best - it does not matter what the hardware can do if the software won't work with it.
So know what your software needs to run on, then design a machine around that. Again, think of it this way: if the software you have won't work on a 64 bit setup, no point getting a 64 bit setup to begin with.
My Dell GX620 has a P4 hyperthreaded processor running at 3 GHz, that's almost twice the speed of my Core 2 Duo machine that died last xmas.
With a fresh install of XP Pro SP# + all subsequent updates, it is running faster than the Core 2 duo ever did
I have a 2nd GX620 with 3gb of ram to use for video/graphics/web processing and development.
If I end up buying new software then maybe I will buy a 64 bit machine, but until then using a lean, mean machine that work well and run as fast or faster than later CPUs is fine with me.
PS I run Cubase 5.5.3, Komplete 8 Ultimate, FLStudio, Reason 6 all on this machine with blistering response times and little vst processing overhead (so far).
I also service PC's in my spare time and used to maintain a campus network of a 130 machines running mostly xp pro, but some with win 98se as well as teaching computing and music. I have been doing this sort of thing since the end of the 80's, so believe me when I tell you that there is more than one way to configure your machines for ultimate performance regardless of processor and mobo architecture.
---------- Post added at 09:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------
Oh, and before you ask, yes I have use Windows 7 pro in a professional capacity, and I would not use it personally if I were given a choice, I'd opt for a 64 bit edition of XP pro any day.