Geees! then add me to the mix as well, as I also experience the loading issues!
I was quite about it but since the thread is opened, might as well confirm too. The thing is If I use the upgrade, by itself in it's own original unarchieved state, it (owb1.9)works better, as for the waiting, yes I also stop, and reload for bringing various pages up. This is not just a owb thing at times chrome does it too.
however using owb from my regular upgraded folder(where I just drop in the new source) tends to react much slower, and locks the tabs, movement everything til it eventually loads. I thought incresing the connections to 16 would help but not. I meant to ask you if it may be a cache issue? But yea upgrading is slower than just unarchieving and using the fresh update.