It seems something has gone bad in my PC. The problem has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of months. 3D games would occasionally get really slow. The framerate would drop way down, and the game would play in slow motion. I tried reformatting, but it didn't work. I tried messing around with drivers for all my hardware to see if any of them were at fault. Things actually seemed to work normally after updating the drivers for my wireless adapter. It didn't last though. Just to be sure I reformatted again, but didn't install the adapter. No dice. I then opened up the case and removed the processor fan/heat sink and the video card and blew all the dust out. After putting them back in, the problem was way worse than it had ever been. I was finally ready to admit that I was going to have to replace something. seeing as how it only seemed to happen on 3D programs, I figured it must be my video card. I removed it and switched to my on-board video. I was a bit surprised when everything seemed to run very poorly. The problem was more evident. Even the OS seemed to be running slow. Still not as bad as 3D programs though. I'm pretty sure that this rules out my video card, so I moved on to the the memory. I only have two sticks compatible with the board, so I tried each one by itself. Unless both sticks are bad, that's not the problem. That leaves the motherboard and the processor. I don't have any way of seeing which one is bad. This has given me an excuse to finally play Fallout though. Its 2D, and therefore seems to be unaffected.

First Question: From what I've told you, can you tell what part is bad?

If the processor is bad, I'm going to replace it with an AM3. My current board is AM2/AM2+, but it looks like it supports the AM3 processors that im looking at after a Bios update.

Second Question: Im looking at the dual core AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz at $76, or the quad core AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz at $99. Ive read that currently, its better to get a faster dual core, as games don't really support four cores yet. I like that, as it means I pay less money, but i would like to see what some of you recommend between the two. If you would like to suggest other processors, then keep in mind that I'm not going to pay more than $100 for one.

Third Question: If i have to get a new board, would it be worth getting an AM3 board for the DDR3 memory? I'm going to be buying new memory when I upgrade to Windows 7 early next year, so I'm thinking i might just get an AM3 board and and 4 gigs of ram to go with it. Ill have to get an new processor too if i do that, so if mine is still good ill wait.

Thank you for your time (I felt like i needed to do that for all the people who read the whole post)

Really hard to say, crappy performance could be caused by almost anything.

Try making a bootable Memtest86 and letting that run. If it does find errors it could still be your motherboard causing them, but at least it'll point you in a direction.

Your CPU overheating would also fit. Try Core Temp to see how hot you're running. If you're idling at or near 60C that's bad.

If both of those check out OK, it's probably your motherboard with a chance of hard disc failure.

For the CPU choice, I'd go with the quad core. For games old enough to only see 1 core, a 2.6Ghz processor is fast enough to run them about as fast as they can go anyway. Same goes for games that can only see 2 2.6Ghz cores, since you'll still get a boost from the 2 free cores taking care of anything the OS wants to do. Now if you were getting a 1.8Ghz it might be worth worry about games that can only see single or dual cores.

The 2.8Ghz version at $122 would be better, but it's slightly out of your price range. After the 2.8 Propus the price really jumps though.

For the 3rd question, it's not worth getting a AM3 board just for DDR3 if you don't have to replace your board. DDR3 isn't really that much better. However there's no reason not to get a AM3 board if you're getting a new one.

It looks like my processor might be running hot. It likes to idle in the mid 60's. I started up a game (Incoming, a really old game because that was what was in my drive at the time) and after the slowdown started, I quit the game and checked Core Temp. It showed the highest recorded temp as 82. In the future I will be shure not to use the included heatsink and fan. My apartment must just be too warm for it. Do you think the processor has been damaged, or would just getting a better cooler work?

It's very possible that the processor has been damaged although there's no real way to tell unless you manage to lower the temp and it's still running poorly. If you're hitting 80s on a decade old game, that's definitely bad.

Stock fans usually aren't bad unless you're overclocking or your room is normally over 85F. I'm using the stock that came with my AMD 3700 and it idles around 40C. In my experience if you're overheating using stock cooling and not overclocked it's because the thermal paste has gone semi solid and isn't transferring heat (especially common on PCs where cheap ceramic paste has been used, Dell likes to use it) or the heatsink is loose. Either way the CPU is going to come with a stock fan anyway, no harm in putting it on and seeing how it runs before buying something extra.

In any case I'd say replace it. Getting a new cooler for what could be a damaged CPU would just be throwing good money after bad.

Thank you Lorben. It looks like we figured out the issue. You have been a lot of help.

I'm still accepting advice from other people on what to buy. No offense to you Lorben, its just nice to have a second opinion.

Edit:
after thinking about it for a little while I've decided to go with your advice Lorben, and get the 2.8Ghz quad core. What you said about it running any single or double threaded games makes sense, and its going to last me longer before I will need to upgrade. I'm assuming that my board and memory are all OK, so i will have the money to get the better processor. If it turns out that I do need to buy a new board ill be tight on cash next month, but ill still be alright.

Again,
Thank you Lorben, you have been a lot of help.