Wanting to upgrade desktop PC.

[Beleth]

I have had my computer for about 3-5 years with a few upgrades along the way, I am no computer expert (or anything close) so I have no clue if this setup is still have decent. Currently my computer will slow right down and then freeze, the only way to fix is restarting, so I assume some components are in need of upgrading.

Any help will be much appreciated, if there is anything I'm missing in the list below, sorry!

System Model: GA-880GM-USB3
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
ProcessorL AMD Athlon(tm) II x4 635 Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory:4069MB RAM
Harddirve. 500GB

Videocard: GeForce 9600GT
Display : 1680 x 1050

Looking to spend at a maximum $1000-$1500, I use my computer for WoW as well as all of the Adobe Suite for Graphic Design.
Thanks!

[BicycleMafioso]

I'd start by cleaning out any residual drivers you've got lying corrupted.
Second of all, I'd defrag the harddrive and see if the problem persists.


As a tertiary suggestion, upgrading. The Athlon II-series doesn't have an L3 cache, so anything with that would be a big boon. Something along the lines of a Phenom II x4 955 BE.