Most Efficient way to set up PC with Win 8 and older Windows

I'm looking for opinions on how to set up a PC for both normal use and performance use.

From my experience when you install a lot of programs on an OS there seems to be background applications that start with windows that you can't avoid from opening on log in. these applications both use ram and resources even though the program they are associated with are not in use.

My original Idea was to dual boot my PC with Win 7 and Win XP (Win 7 for all my normal use programs "lots", Win XP (for performance) for all my studio, audio editing, video editing, programming, gaming. and extensive power consuming programs; since there are fewer of these i have and i figure there will be less background interference and better speed on the lighter system). i even read somewhere that installing all your programs on a separate disk will help with speed so 1 HDD can read the program data and your SSD can read and manage OS data.

now that Win 8 has stepped into the scene i hear from opinion that performance levels vs Win 7 are better.

Now that I'm stuck a cross roads i have 2 options.

I'm thinking i should install Win 8 on half my SSD and put all my performance based applications on my first HDD, then install Win 7 on the other half of the SSD and install it's content on the second HDD.

i also plan on installing linux and server via Virtual box so i can play with and learn them. i get all OSs free through school   lol

i want any opinion on if everything i seem to be setting up is right or if i should just install everything on Win 8 and virtual box; "the rest" of my apps on Win 7 Vbox and the other OSs in Vbox and still have the performance on the actual Win 8.

Plz any info and input is appreciate