Hi:
I have an HP m7360n HTPC, which has a propriatary ASUS made mobo.

I have attached the info from the HP support site below which list only support for Pentium processors.

I might be freeing up a E4300, so I was wondering if it was worth installing it to improve the performance?

Any insights would be welcomed. Oh yeah current CPU is a Pentium D 2.8GHz

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Motherboard manufacturer's name: ASUS P5LP-LE
HP/Compaq name: Emery-UL8E

CPU/Processor Socket: 775
Supports the following processors:
Pentium D 800 series (Smithfield)
Pentium 4 600 series (Prescott)
Pentium 4 HT (Prescott)

System bus 533 MHz, 800 MHz, 1066 MHz

Chipset Northbridge: Intel 945P
Southbridge: Intel ICH7DH

BIOS features 4 Mb FWH EEPROM
HP BIOS with enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, and PnP Features Plus

Form factor Micro-ATX: 9.6 in X 9.6 in

Memory Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supports PC2 3200 (400 MHz), PC 4200 (533 MHz) and PC2 5300 (667 MHz) DDR2 DIMMs
Maximum HP/Compaq approved memory is 4 GB

Some mainboard with 945 generation chipset support Core 2, some not. From the look of it I don't think yours supports Core 2 as the spec you listed above and also the latest BIOS for this mainboard is released on 2006-10-09. A mainboard with Core 2 support normally has an updated BIOS lately for microcode update (to workaround a bunch of errata in Core 2 CPU). This is all my speculation though, maybe someone with better knowledge and experience with this specific machine can help you more or you can contact HP directly.

Thuan, thanks for the reply, it saved my a few hours of removing CPU\HSF and installing the E4300, and undoing the work ;-)

It is a shame because I was really hoping that I could upgrade this system as it still seems to be working quite well.

I guess I can always upgrade the GPU and extend its life for a bit longer.

I second that. the board in question has a core 2 ready chipset, but does not have the updated voltage regulation system for core 2.

On the plus side there are many cheap core 2 boards out now....

You know what nukemaster? You are so right.

I am still a n00b at this building thing, and for some reason I keep thinking that I can upgrade everything but the mobo.

Somehow it feels like if I get a new mobo I might as well get a new computer, which of course makes no sense.

Thanks for the reminder.