The Linux version includes tcatm's 4-way SSE2 SHA-256 that makes generating faster on i5, i7 (with hyperthreading) and AMD CPU's. Try the "-4way" switch to enable it and check if it's faster for you.
Download from sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.3.10/
It is no longer necessary to delete blk*.dat. The good block chain has overtaken the bad block chain, so you can just upgrade and it'll automatically reorg away the bad block chain.