My definition of stuttering is: multiple, very brief pauses in accepting user input and updating the video display.
The easiest way to confirm this state is to slowly move the mouse in a small circle (5-10cm on screen). Every time the system "stutters" the mouse will look like it's jumping around the expected path, instead of moving smoothly. The video display will also stop in mid fade in/out when opening Windows explorer (one way to trigger a volume interrogation it seems).
I don't consider this act a "freeze" technically as the system eventually resumes without user intervention or input (reboots, key presses, etc). I don't consider just moving the mouse "user input" for this definition.
If I leave my system alone, it doesn't stutter that I've seen. normal system activities don't result in stuttering (but I haven't run any full-blown games yet).
The fact that I am able to reproduce explicitly and only relating to RAID volume interrogation leads me to believe that power management is not related (as the previous related tests were negative). I would expect indexing to potentially induce the symptoms but not because it's the cause; the fact that reinstalling with different drivers seems to solve the problem for user1238 would indicate that indexing alone isn't the issue as the problem should have then returned.
