pc move... maybe

so i'm a mac user who for various reasons may be getting a pc laptop soon. the pc will be soley for music. no, i'm not getting rid of the mac(s). i've never owned a pc, tho i use one everyday at work. i'm aware of musicxp.net. my question is what else should i do to this machine upon setting it up to make sure it runs as best it can for music? i'd like to say i won't even go online with it, but of course i will. but i will do my best to keep everything off it other than music software and basic web/email stuff... what things should i do as far as stripping out extra crap that comes w/ xp? should the drive be partitioned os/apps/workspace? should it be partitioned at all? is there any material difference between xp home and pro that i care about? does hyperthreading matter? what processor type is best? what else should i be thinking about?

i'm tempted to ask for brand/model suggestions (which i'd be glad to hear) but i know there's lots of info about that out there and it sorta just comes down to a toss-up between the majors anyway.

thanks for any thoughts, advice, experience...

Definately install as less stuff as possible, I mean do we really nedd 1000 plug ins when we use mainly 5-6!?! do we need acid, fruity, reason, storm, sx, logic, etc... when u'll b using only about 1 of ' em...!?!? C were I'm getting at..!?

Z

yeah great advice....minimal is the future

lol, i've seen a lot of ppl w/ a billion different programs installed and they only use one