Core 2 Quad or Xeon?

Hi everyone,

I got a pretty old system running here and unfortunately I can't afford new one at the moment. So I was thinking to do just a small refresh until I manage to get a new PC. I mostly play games and most demanding one is Battlefield 3 where my overclocked Core2Duo E8500 doesn't do very well. I started to look for an Core2Quad and then I saw that you can mod 771 Xeon CPUs to LGA775 fairly easy. My G41M-VS3 R2.0 should support the Xeon as it supports 1333MHz FSB.  Is Xeon worth the trouble of modifying the socket? Core2Quad Q9550 costs so much more than Xeon E5440 but yet both have same specs. Which one would overclock better? I would really appreciate some enlightenment here.

If your mobo supports over clocking you might find the q6600 is worth a look. They usually oc'd quite well. I would be wary of having to mod a CPU unless you can afford to throw I away.

I would say that the Core2Quad would overclock a lot better than the Xeon, however, I know that there are overclocking Xeons out there, in the older generation of Xeons, and if the E5440 is one of them, I would say go for that chip over the Core2Quad.

But I can say that the Q9550 is a solid chip for its age, and you have to decide cost vs. modding motherboard for Xeon.