CPU Replacements

Your board will support the E6500, that is about as good as you can get. It will be a pretty significant boost, the Core 2 architecture is a fair bit better than the netburst that the pentiums were

The Pentium D 2.8ghz is not part of the Core family.
It's either a Pentium D 820 Smithfield or Pentium D 920 Presler CPU
Performance wise - these are the Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
Pentium D @ 2.80GHz = 735
Core2 Duo E6400 @ 2.13GHz = 1264
Core2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33GHz = 1441
Core2 Duo E6700 @ 2.66GHz = 1636
Pentium Dual-Core E6500 @ 2.93GHz = 2048
Core2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66GHz = 3351

All are Socket 775 CPUs and the CPU voltage values seem to be in the same range:
Pentium D 820 Smithfield 2.80GHz Voltage: 1.25-1.4V
Pentium D 920 Presler 2.8GHz Voltage: 1.25-1.4V
Core2 Duo E6700 Voltage: 0.85V – 1.5V
Core2 Quad Q6700 Voltage: 0.85V – 1.5V
Pentium Dual-Core E6500 Voltage: 0.85V – 1.3625V

But you want to be very careful about what CPUs the board can actually support - probably through BIOS upgrades provided by HP.

--> For that reason I think you want to browse the HP support forums and see what others that own the same MB have done for CPU upgrades. Best way I know to find out what really works.

i don't think itl take a quad will it? be nice

I'm glad to see that there is possibilities. It seems the Core2 Duo E6700 would be my best option. over doubling my performance xD

thanks heaps for the reply, just what i need

cheers

It should take a quad too. No physical or power issues stand in the way.
Firmware (BIOS and MB chipset) support could be an issue.

Let us know what you find out in the HP forums.

All i found was basically what you've stated, no one talking about what they've actually tried... unless i just cant find what I'm looking for

You really think it'll take a quad??   I thought it was a bit old for that so i never looked into it. Mind filling me in on Quads that might be supported?

Also this is for ProTools (music production) and of course gaming

major letdown....

just to find more out about my motherboard i ran HWiNFO and discovered its not the P5LP-LE (leonite)... Its the P5LP-LE (emery)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=e...

not looking good for upgrades... i don't think

Could any harm be done if i were to get a loan CPU of a friend and try it out? it supports 1066mhz FSB