Is it time to consider a new iMac?

I am a freelance graphic designer and am having a hard time deciding if it is time to in fact me looking at a new machine. While it might sound silly, I'm looking for some honest feedback. I have an iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 4 GB RAM. Some days it still seems to run pretty well and other days - ugh, like watching paint dry!!! Because I am freelance and work from home, I take getting a new machine seriously because of cost vs income. I've had my current machine 5 years. On a typical day I run the following apps (most opened up all the time throughout the day with the exception of Mail & Firefox as needed): Mail, Firefox, Text Edit, Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Distiller, InDesign and Suitcase Fusion. I just restarted my machine yesterday and did a verify & repair permissions under disc utilities. I just seem to be experiencing more "hangs" as I call them when I got to open files or go to search something on the internet, etc. Any input greatly appreciated!

Well,
If you want to spend and outlay cash for a new Mac, that is certainly your own decision.
You wanted advice and here's some additonal advice from me.
I own the same late 2009 IMac model year in a 27 inch screen running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard (THE BEST OS X version Apple and Apple software engineers EVER developed, IMO) and I am still running an older version of Adobe Creative Suite (CS3) with 16 Gbs of RAM and my IMac still flies and works very well for all of my creative graphics and digital drawing and painting work!
I do not like the whole rent- a-software, Adobe subscription plan, also (I do not think any professional creatives much like Adobe's subscription model, either).
I can't say how much better your Adobe CS5 apps will work with the additionally installled RAM, but I know it will be a pretty noticeable improvement.
To find out exactly how much hard drive space you have left, in the Finder, click on the icon of your Mac's hard drive on the OS X desktop, the use the shortcut keyboard keys Command-I (shortcut for Get Info). This will tell you both how much free space is left on your hard drive and how much hard drive space was used.
If your hard drive space has dipped below 15 GBs, then it is time to do some serious house cleaning on that drive.
Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
You should never, EVER let a computer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto or Aperture, both have its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you are an iMovie/ Final Cut user, both apps have their own individual Trash location that needs to be emptied, too!
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Also, Find Any File
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Moving iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving iPhoto library
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Moving iMovie projects folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289
Good Luck!

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