Disk utility>repair disk
then disk utility>repair permissions
Had already done
As part of the reinstall did you let OS X restore all your data and preferences from a back or Time Machine? If so, whatever caused it to slow down originally could still be slowing it down.
No, no data put back on it yet. So far, just a fresh clean install, that's it, I wanted to eliminate any issues that might be cause by any data on the drive already.
Also, try creating a new user account and logging on as that user then run your benchmarks. This will at least prove whether the issue is profile dependent.
It's not profile dependent, it's 100% the hardware. I did a complete fresh install, wiped all everything off the HD (after backing it up to an external HD) and reinstalled Snow Leopard afresh, then let it do all the updates it needed to. Then installed geekbench, ran it, and got the same lowly scores.
applejack.
download it and run it.
this usually cures any non hardware problems.
keep the hd less than 75% full.
Downloaded it, ran it, it did its thing. It's made no difference.
HD has always been less than 75% full, currently there's only about 10Gig taken up of a 320Gig HD!
by using smart reporter
Smart Reporter tells me everything is OK 
Open up console and take a look at the system log, see if there is owt there.
Absolutely f***ing tonnes, but what precisely am I looking for? 
Activity monitor, see how much memory is being used.
Not very much, got 3GB in the machine, OSX only needs about 512MB to run a clean install.
Threaten the machine with a copy of windows, see if it scares it into working faster
It didn't respond, not even a murmur. I think it's totally unfazable!
You should have had a diagnostics disk with your machine. Boot into that and run them.
Will they be on the Snow Leopard install disc I've also got (this machine came with Tiger), only I've lose the original discs.
My MB behaved in a similar way just before the HD died. New HD and back to normal service.
Don't have a spare HD, and reluctant to throw more money at it in case it's to no avail.
It's all in your head, Macs never go wrong.
Errrr, the OS is very nice, but sadly just like all computers, they're let down by 3rd party manufacturers poor quality parts all too often. And as you'll know, in a Windows based machine, they're almost always easier to fix/replace.
Was clogging the cooling vanes for the CPU radiator. Temps had bin slowly climbing, hot weather din't help. A proper hoover out has helped things a lot. Temps don't get nearly as high even when using CPU intensive stuff like video encoding and that. 
Gotta love STW.
