I want a lightweight X11 desktop for occasional use, but GNOME is too bloated to work. What other desktops work?

I am fine using ssh and sftp for most work, but as the head developer for a development VPS i need to use a few GUI tools.

I’m familiar with X11 (since 1989).   The default installed is GNOME but it’s such a resource pig that all I can get it to do is to display its flashy background.   I can get a few popmenus to work, but anything I try to do just spins forever.   I’ve used Yum to install a few other alternatives for Centos, but none of them work.  They startup and then crash.   I have another VPS running Debian and use LXDE works fine.  But, it’s apparently not built for Centos.   Any other suggestions?