Yes, you should most definitely install a Gingerbread ROM if you want a fast and stable ROM. There are many to choose from, but the three most popular are LiquidNext 1.9.2, MIUI, and CM7.2. Of the three, I'd recommend CM7.2, though honestly, I've never tried an MIUI ROM (never liked the feel of MIUI). Follow the advice written in all the other posts (use a lightweight launcher, don't use compcache, set your autokiller values high, etc.), but I do have one thing to add: if you ever play games or use apps that *might* have high RAM requirements (CAD apps, most games released after December 2010, Gameloft games, etc.) or if you want to be on the safe side, always have a 256MB swap partition on your SD card, but set swappiness to a low value (10). This will ensure that swap is rarely used (which is good, since using swap is a lot slower than using RAM) unless it is really needed.
Also, don't forget to overclock (and tweak with voltages if you want higher speeds, just don't forget to stress test before you tick "Set on boot") and set your CPU governor to SmartassV2.
If you're feeling like experimenting, you can always try the CM9 beta for an ICS ROM. Note however that it requires a LOT of tweaking to be usable on an everyday basis, and even then you will get the occasional random reboot or freeze. It's speed (after tweaking) is debatable: those who say it always runs slower didn't tweak the ROM properly IMO. It'll sometimes be slower, but other times be faster than the previous ROM I used (LiquidNext 1.9.2), and my benchmark runs also agree with me (some will give higher scores, others will give lower scores than the ones I got on LiquidNext). Also, as of now, Beta4 does not play well with the Liquid A1, so stick with Beta3 if you can.
Edited by Delnar_Ersike, 27 June 2012 - 01:04 PM.