Last week I put together the following system just for FSX:

proc                 Intel i7  2.6 Mhz
mobo               MSI X58 Platinum
hd                    VelociRaptor WD3000
psu                   OCZ 700 Watt
mem                 6 GB OCZ 1600
video                GeForce 8800 GTX

I used my old GeForce 8800 GTX video card, Samsung 2493HM Monitor, and an old keyboard. I'm running Vista Home Premium since I got it free. The total cost of the other parts from Newegg (including a new Antec gaming case) minus rebates came to $1,070.  

Coming from a Quad 6600  I was initially impressed with the i7's speed and snappiness in Windows so I jumped right into overclocking it up even more. Relying on my past Overclocking experience? I decided to wing it without reading up and was not overly impressed with the results even though I jumped from 2.6 Ghz to 3.6 Ghz and the reason was I did not see a substantial improvement in FSX framerate … in fact, it was all over the place … as low as 12 up to 33 … but never, never consistent. Ok …  read up dummy and then do it the right way!  I then made changes in the bios as listed below garnered from the posters on this site … so thanks to all, and especially Nick. As follows:

Hyperthread                 disabled
Spread Spectrum         disabled
cpu overspeed             disabled
C-State                       disabled
Turbo Boost               disabled
EIST                           auto
QPI links speed          full speed
Freq                           auto

base clock                   180
cpu increase                +0.100
cpu Vcore                   1.136v
PLL                            auto
QPI                            auto
DRR3                         1.62v (1440 Mhz)
Advanced DRAM       all auto

I then activated nHancer and loaded FSX with Digital's Cheyenne to began a flight from Olympia to Seattle at night and loaded as well OCTT, an online Approach Plate url,  and also had displaying a spare GPS (Garmin 500) (to help me in approaches). Throughout the takeoff, inflight, and approach the framerate hovered between 26-30 fps (it is set for 30). The highest temp was on proc 3 which reached 66, and the rest were closer to 62 most of the time.

Scenery sliders are somewhat high: Radius Large, Mesh 62, Mesh resolution 10, Texture resolution 7, Water 2x and Scenery complexity Dense, Autogen Dense, Special Effects High.

Traffic sliders are mostly on the lower end with the highest being GA 25%.

I made one attempt with adding [JOBSCHEDULER] AffinityMask=255 (HT enabled) and saw my framerates drop about 8 frames with the same configuration without the changes. I did not test further ... (sorry)  

This is a beginning point for me with the i7, and if I never changed the settings I would be very happy. I know there are a lot a factors involved and a lot I don't know about that involve framerates … but this is a point I can always return to after experimenting. It's possible I could push it further with the overclocking and sliders .... but I think I'll play for awhile first. :^))

Multiplayer last night with 4 pilots was pretty much locked on 30 fps …. and a fantastic experience. But Multiplayer might be a different game as far as overall settings that are locked in, I don't know, but it was certainly enjoyable. I am not seeing any stutters at this time ...

Jim