My choices are XFCE or LXDE. Both are lightweight and serves my needs. For me, I look at the programs that are must have's regardless of either DE or WM, which are quite minimal..

A terminal, browser, media player, torrent client, pdf reader, file manager, editor, and a screenshot program.

Most of my time is spent in the terminal..

The perfect DE/WM for me are the one's where you rarely have to mess around with that much. It should just work and not get in the way of you spending that time on productive/leisure things that matter most.