Windows 7: Video & Sound lags - seemingly random

Let's start with my machine:

MOBO: BIOSTAR TZ77XE3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...

Graphics: EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

16 GB Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
-Installed on: OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Power: Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V ...

1tb HDD

I just put this computer together over the last weekend.
It was seeming to run fine, until a bunch of windows updates came.
I uninstalled every windows update I could.

I have gone into the BIOS and selected to default settings.

This is driving me crazy! When I'm playing games (Legend of Grimrock, even) or watching netflix. The sound and mouse lag like a robotic stretching sound (think Neo in the Matrix after he eats the pill and starts screaming and it becomes digital sounding). Sometimes it becomes unbearable.

Any thoughts on how to further debug and/or fix this problem.

UPDATE: did a clean install of the newest nvidia drivers

UPDATE: came back and it is definitely still doing it. Mouse is choppy in motion. Sound still lagging at clips.

UPDATE: updated the drivers on my RAZER DEATHADDER to the latest version. Seems to still be acting up.

UPDATE: Ran the system on 2 of the 4 sticks of ram. Still did it. Ran it on the other 2 sticks of ram after that. Still did it.

UPDATE: Removed the graphics card and ran windows. Still did it.

UPDATE: did complete reinstall of windows. Still doing it. This is starting to get depressing.

UPDATE: description of the lag - when it happens, it will happen several times in a row, with about 1 second intervals between the spikes.



UPDATE: in describing the pattern of the lag, it will spike out

Thanks,
Nick