| OS | Best for | ISO Size | RAM usage | |----|----------|----------|------------| | (official) | Balanced Lite experience | ~10 GB | 1.2 GB | | Ghost Spectre Windows 11 | Gaming focus | ~9 GB | 1.1 GB | | ReviOS | Privacy + performance | ~8 GB | 1.0 GB | | Windows 10 LTSC 2021 | Long-term stability (official) | ~4 GB | 1.5 GB | | Linux Mint (non-Windows) | Ultimate lightweight | ~2.5 GB | 600 MB |
Consider the following sensible rules of thumb:
| Metric | Official Win11 Pro | Win11 Pro Lite 23H2 22631.4169 | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Boot time (cold start) | 24 seconds | 11 seconds | | RAM usage at idle | 2.6 GB | 890 MB | | Background processes | 112 | 34 | | C:\ drive size after install | 22.4 GB | 5.1 GB | | File Explorer launch time | 1.2 sec | 0.3 sec | | Cinebench R23 (multi) | 1978 pts | 1992 pts (similar, no CPU penalty) | | Disk read speed (CrystalDiskMark) | 510 MB/s | 508 MB/s (negligible difference) |
