I tested raring daily on 2 machines for a month an a half - was totally impressed with the speed and responsiveness compared to 12.10. I
'tried' an upgrade on my HP Tower and it was SO SLOW
I finally aborted it, repartitioned and did a fresh install and customization in less time that the 'upgrade'. The HP was hard wired to the router!
I didn't bother on my laptop with anything except using dd from external to internal.
So now I'm evaluating LM 14 cinnamon on both machines. I like cinnamon so much that I installed the theme
in my Ubuntu 13.04 installation.
WRT being a dog or not IMO Raring is a definite hit on my hardware. I do, however, like the fact that Ubuntu 13.04 is running a newer kernel
than LM 14