Windows 7 pro 64 slow down running moderate number of apps

I've been experiencing major slow down of my system and can't figure out why. Here are some details:


Computer is a HP Pavilion Core i7 Q 720 @ 1.6 ghz with 8gb ram


I'm using Performance Test to benchmark the system in different states


My baseline is Win7 Diagnostic mode (no services, no startups) - let's say that is 100% (quite fast)


Running only windows services and Eset - it drops to about 60%


But then when I'm working running several MS Office apps, Firefox, Skype and a few smaller programs, it drops to 5%!! Quite noticeably and frustratingly slow for what is supposed to be a very speedy computer.


The CPU usage is not high, memory is fine. But it is just SLOW.


Any suggestions how I can diagnose this further?

I had done both antivirus and malware scans, plus registry cleaning to no avail.

I am now trying to run with limited services and so far its been better.

Hyper-threading is built in to the i7 cpu and does not have to be enabled in the bios.

Try replacing Eset with MS Security Essentials or Avast 5 with the Win7 Firewall for best performance.

Try using IE8 instead of Firefox.

Win7 troubleshooting fundamentals

optimize computer services with some sytem optimizer such as reginout