Dan,
Make sure you install the latest Whql drivers for the HD5450.  Do not install any of the "extra" utilities.  (Check the task manager startup tab to make sure you don't have anything you don't want running in the background).
 
Also, if you have 64-bit double precision turned on, disable it and see what happens.

JonD
Dan,
Make sure you install the latest Whql drivers for the HD5450.  Do not install any of the "extra" utilities.  (Check the task manager startup tab to make sure you don't have anything you don't want running in the background).
 
Also, if you have 64-bit double precision turned on, disable it and see what happens.

By extra utilities are you referring to Catalyst Control Center? It looks like they might be doing away with CCC as I also have a new program from AMD called Radeon settings. Can I get rid of CCC, as I thought it was somewhat resource heavy?

Most boards have extra PCIe slots. Try another one.  If your card is only for DAW use just get one of those under $40 nVidia cards. 

Ok so I think I solved most of the problem. Apparently Microsoft felt the need to install a background app for their Groove music service w/out telling me. I happened to notice it was taking up about 23% of the resources so I killed/uninstalled and also purged any other unnecessary processes. That fixed the stuck now time marker and improved the lagginess considerably.
 
However, I still feel like there's much room for improvement. I did a benchmark of my PC and the results were not so hot. Granted I think these benchmark programs are generally tailored more towards gaming PC's but I'm wondering if there are still things I should look into. Specifically, my processor and RAM are scoring quite low despite what I think are pretty decent specs. I'll post the results below and if anything sticks out, I'd definitely appreciate any pointers!
 
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/2501728