Mac OS X finder and disk utility not responding
This potentially sounds like you could have a faulty hard-drive. Without being near the machine it's difficult to diagnose, but if Finder, Disk Utility and Dock are freezing it's probably when your machine is trying to access a file on the hard disk and failing. Try a Verify from the Disk Utility 'First Aid' screen. If you can hear a clicking sound coming from your hard drive it could be an indication of a hardware fault. If you have an alternative hard drive you could try using, see if you get the same symptoms.

One last thing - make sure you have an up-to date backup! If the drive does fail you'll want a backup handy. I'll assume you have a backup because you said you just did a blank install.