To get of delays most people should upgrade HDDs to SDDs. That might be the thing to do - if you don't already have SDDs. I don't think you need hyperthreading for smooth browsing.

I don't think an application actually needs to support HTT; HTT just presents additional virtual cores, and if the application is multithreaded, those virtual cores may be helpful. As you say, video work can benefit from virtual cores, as can compiling code, but it's unlikely to add anything to browser speed. I'd go with more memory or an SSD for that.

My understanding is that each tab in a browser represents a different thread... at least for Chrome... which I use the most.

When I have a lot of tabs open, the browser becomes very sluggish. I'm thinking that this sluggishness is caused by thread switching overhead.

If that is so, if I have more threads, it would reduce the amount of switching... and maybe reduce the sluggishness. What do you think?

ces: Unless you have many tabs with constant heavy JS or playing video they are not going to be using much CPU. You would need multiple tabs each pegging a core at 100% before hyper-threading might help. Context switching isn't a difficult task on a modern CPU. It's far more likely you are running into other resource limitations like RAM/disk IO/Network IO.

Getting off-topic...let's move back to IVB release rumors.

I agree. It seems to be a common misbelief that having a email program and 10+ tabs open equals multitasking. Most of the time the tabs really do nothing. Even flash player might pause the game it is playing if you switch a tab. And it is easy to check the CPU usage via Task Manager. I have 10 tabs open in Chrome and the processes do nothing.

Multitasking is something where you actually have high load on multiple cores. Like rendering or video editing. Having multiple programs open does not equal heavy multitasking.

Back on topic: I'm finally upgrading my E6400 system and Ivy Bridge (3570k) seems to be a good candidate for rendering. I'm actually very interested in HW RNG which might give a small boost to many unbiased renderers which rely on random umbers heavily.

I hope the release schedule holds.

I'd like to have Intel LAN chip. Are there cheaper alternatives than Asus P8Z77-V?

Mobos release in a week. Wait and see

I'm with you. I will finally retire my LGA775 celeron E3300! I expect a slight fps increase in x264 encodes with Ivy Bridge.