MCE vs XP Pro (technical viewpoint) (1 Viewer)

[htpcNoob]

I currently have Media Portal installed on XP Pro. I know Windows MCE 2005 is a tweaked version of XP with the "MCE" application. Since MCE is sort of geared towards the multimedia crowd, I was wondering whether installing Media Portal on MCE version of XP as opposed to XP Pro would give me a performance boost.

For example, I know MCE does not have domain controller since there is no need for it for multimedia users. This would remove some overhead when booting windows, thus saving boot time and resource usage. I was wondering if there are any special optimizations inherent in MCE that will allow Media Portal to install and run faster on it than a stripped down version of XP Pro?

 

[5teve]

from what i know... you shouldnt see much difference between mce and xp sp2 however i do suspect that cpu utilisation 'may' be a bit lower when watching tv (from my observations, but nothing conclusive) the other advantage is that xp pro seems to be broken for dual digital cards, requiring the use of a couple of files from MCE, so if you plan on using more than 1 tv card thats digital, it could save you some hassle!

Thanks

Steve