Constant spinning beachballs

[Inspiratron]

Hello,

I have been using Leopard since the day it came out, and up until recently have been happy with it. A few months ago, it was being very slow, so slow that I was fed up and did an Erase and Install. Now, it is giving me constant spinning beachballs and temporary freezes in Finder and Safari. Sometimes, Finder will freeze when I try to copy a small file, empty the trash, or even just open a new window. Also, Safari will randomly freeze on any type of webpage, and almost always on YouTube. Usually, the only apps I'm running are Adium, Finder, and Safari.

After a recent clean install, this seems like unusual behavior, because I never had these problems in Tiger. I've done repaired disks and disk permissions to no avail. Any suggestions, or am I in for another reinstall? My specs are below...

MacBook Pro 15.4" with Samsung external monitor
2.2Ghz Intel C2D with 2gb RAM
nVidia GeForce 8600GT with 128mb VRAM
AcomData 160GB FW400 drive
Echo Audio AUDIOFIRE 12

Thanks

 

[HLdan]

The "clean install" phrase differs largely on the MR forums. Could you explain exactly what you did?

Example. When performing the "clean install" did you fully erase the hard drive and install Leopard? Did you add your applications (outside of the built-in Leopard apps) one by one after the new install?