15" i7 Core MacBook Pro + Spinning Beach Balls of Death = What's going on?

Question

As the title suggests, I bought a 15" i7 Core MacBook Pro about 3 weeks ago, but I notice that it has many beach balls (or spinning colored circles) when trying to use applications such as iTunes or Safari on my up to date Mac. Most of the time it happens when I try to open something, but I noticed slow loading times for some applications as well as them being non-responsive to where I have to force quit them (or in iPhoto '11's case, it one time crashed and I had to relaunch).
I did some research, and I found that this issue has affected other Core i7 MacBook Pro and iMac users. I already did a fresh install of Snow Leopard, updated all of my software, and I next am going to run Disk Utility and TechTool Deluxe to see if that will help at all (doubt it will as I still had this problem after running Disk Utility before the fresh install with a temporary improvement before the problems came back).
So, what's going on with my new Mac? I could always bring it into the Apple Store and have the Genius Bar look at it (as it's covered for 3 years under AppleCare), but I wonder if there's something I can do on my end which could perhaps avoid that. Any and all input is appreciated!

Answer 1

Thanks for the suggestion, Dale, but the SBBODs come across multiple applications, so it's hard to tell what may be causing it. I can check Activity Monitor the next time I see a SBBOD and see if terminating it helps. I hope it's not (and I don't think it is) a hardware issue as my MBP is only 3 weeks old!
Also, as I think about it, I read on that handy dandy SBBOD FAQ that having the option to put hard disks to sleep whenever possible unchecked to speed up hard drive access time. I also noticed that it stated to do this if I notice lag when accessing a hard drive. I have SBBODs when trying to open a file in programs such as iPhoto, Pages, etc. Also, I notice that programs, iTunes comes to mind, can become non-responsive when trying to do certain things (like using the iTunes store, accessing a different pane like music to iPhone, etc.). Could this be a possible culprit?
Speaking of hardware, I have 4 GB of DDR3 RAM installed. Additionally, I have a Core i7 2.66 GHz processor, just to answer an asked question.