Hey guys, as most of you know, I built an i7 computer earlier this year. For the last few months (3 or 4), I've been experiencing a lot of slowdown. It started occurring a little while after my computer got hurt in a power outtage (didn't yet have an UPS...). It caused a lot of problems, namely I couldn't get any video and had a lot of error codes. Finally, I figured out that my PCI-E slot that fits my gtx295 was fried, and I needed a new motherboard. So, EVGA replaced it.  Once I put it together, I noticed my CPU core temp had risen from ~43C (which is not that bad really for this computer build) to reading 83-84C. I took it back apart, reapplied my thermal paste, and when it POSTed, I got the same temperature reading. Perhaps a sensing probe problem? Maybe not... well, regardless. Little by little, my computer has started getting slower.

It got so bad, I started thinking maybe it was just corrupt system files (easy fix, no money involve *crossed fingers for it*), and about 4 or 5 days ago I upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit.  It behaved pretty well for a while, but starting last night (about 12 hours ago), it started showing more and more slowing down. Basically, it is taking longer to load a site, because I'll see it lagging between updating (the little circle next to a loading tab keeps freezing, then continuing, over and over). Then, it started getting slower when I was opening multiple programs. About 20 minutes ago, it even froze Windows Explorer, while I was opening a program.  Even the background on the desktop went white because it was so (stressed?) slow.  I finally had to do a hard reboot. Upon logging in, it took like 5 or so seconds to even load the icon pictures for my desktop, and to get my startup programs working.  Just now, I opened up a second tab, however, and it took about 6 seconds to load the page, and while I was waiting for it to, I went back to this tab, and everything slowed down and started stopping and starting for about 3 or 4 seconds, until the page in the other tab loaded. However, a second ago I wasn't seeing it as much.

When I first built my computer, it handled multitasking so well, it didn't even break a sweat.  I've scanned it for malware multiple times, but am not coming up with anything that I couldn't fix, except for a couple trackers on AVG.  I will attempt to get rid of them with spybot S&D.

Do you guys think it might be a processor problem? I had to reformat my C: drive, an SSD, and put install W7 on it, because I was using my D: drive for a while, because I was testing to see if maybe it was the hard drive that was faulty.  Now, I am not so sure it would be hard drive.  Before I go out of my way to try putting in a new processor, or even to get it checked by a professional, I thought I'd run it by my family at EP first.  What do you guys think?

I'm really hoping to get this fixed! Thanks, E-people!