I've been flogging my Windows XP Pro for most of a decade with mirc, frequently running a dozen or more, near 100% processes 24/7 downloading then filtering through 2 GB worth of text per hour via a dozen mircs running remote script connections. I want more.

I am replacing my current i3-3225 w/5MB dsl, but not yet wed to, an i7-4770 Haswell Quad 3.5 on an MSI z87 mobo with 4GB of Crucial ballistic 1866 w/15MB DSL. What I lack is a clear choice OS that does one thing, run as many mirc at full blast, stably, infinitely... On what OS would you suggest my i7 spend the next decade laboring away at this mirc based dedicated operation while efficiently making the most of what hardware it has to use while not being dogged down by the ?90% of OS fluff it does not need. (keeping in mind that mirc is *likely* to never go 64bit)

Tell me which OS do you like for this job and why it shines above others?

Are these 138 page views all just me checking back to see if anyone said win7 yet? Seriously no one? Come on what about Server 2008, or 2012. What is the simplest new Windows OS that will provide mirc the most unencumbered, best performance on a Haswell i7? I'm talking dozens of mirc's running at 95% processes for all eternity... name an OS please.

Most of those views are people reading your question and not having an idea how to answer. Think about this, how many people are doing something like this and have to worry about this? If you really want a low profile OS find or make a stripped down win7, I don't know if there is anything better or worth all this hassle.

The answer is surprisingly simple:

The simplest new Windows OS is the newest version of the Windows OS, which would be Windows 8.

I don't like the UI, but if you want performance, it's going to have the best performance for modern hardware.

mIRC doesn't support any other OS's, so your choices are pretty limited.