Hi OP,

I have tried quite a few roms for the Note and I can say they pretty much run all fairly smooth.
I am currently back to stock ICS, unrooted and all. I wanted to see what kind of differences between cooked and stock. I find that my performance is pretty much similar. I never benchmarked my phone, I just go with how it feels when I'm using it
i still get the occasional lag every once in awhile, but this is probably due to the "launcher" progs that I'm testing
The SG3 is a nice phone, nice specs and fast...but if you really like the size of the Note, then maybe you should wait a bit for the Note2 - Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - Full phone specifications

 

My friend, you are in luck! My note has un smoother than any device I've ever held in my hands thanks to a new rom/kernel. Over at xda a ledgendary developer has released his version of CM9 and it freakin rocks. Added with his OC kernel which overclocks to 1.94 (1.83 safely) and you'll never think about that SG whatever thingy. Trust me, I threw an SG3 theme on ther and installed beats audio and S-Voice, and i've never benchmarked higher. Let me know if you're interested and I'll link everything for ya.

 

Lag free rom right here:

[ROM][CM9-Kang] h0tsauce "9" 20120817 *reborn* - xda-developers

 

I love the note but ill admit it lags a bit on ics stock roms, at least for me. Not horribly but its no gs3. I don't overclock though. Smoothest for me so far is a cm10 rom by quincyatt over on xda. The occasional reboot but runs great. There are also some nice snote alternatives on the play store.

Edit: wow,just realized how old this thread is lol

 

Every thread in this foru is old, this forum is so stagnate.

 

Liquid Smooth jelly bean rom.. Absolutely perfect.. I don't know how I have had anything else