I also bought a athlon 2400 tbred and it showed up as a 1800. im still thinking it is a athlon 1800 1.5 i changed the ratio and it worked but i want to make sure i got a Epox 8RDA+ Motherboard and i thinl it supports a athlon tbred 2600 and higher. can someone tell em if it def is 2400 and that the motherboard is misreading it by default, so i can be sure that i paid for the a AthlonXP 2400 2.0Ghz Athlon 1800 1.5Ghz.

easiest way to be sure is to look at the chip. The part number will start with axda2400... Here is a 2200+. http://www.3dnews.ru/documents/3367/opn.jpg

I was told to look at the actual processor but didnt think at the time but now ive put it with the heatsink im a bit worried about taking it out. is it ok to take it out a put back in? and will it actually give me the proper spec?

You don't need to take it out. The athlon 1800+ runs at 1.53ghz, a multiplier of 11.5 times an fsb of 133. There is no such thing as an athlon 1800+ that runs at an fsb of 100 and a multiplier of 15. But either way you get to 1.5ghz, which is why your system is calling your xp 2400+ an 1800+, because its running at 15x100 = 1.5ghz. Different mobos will default to different fsb speeds, but every mobo properly detects the default multiplier. If this program says the multiplier is 15, then its a 15x133=2.0gz athlon xp 2400+ which is being set to an fsb of only 100 by your mobo, which you should change to 133. http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-118.zip

Cupid only gives the readings of what the BIOS tells it no matter what ratio u use it wont give one proper reading. i know how to change the ratio 133 and 15 but they still dont show the acurate CPU speed and model, so it a bit blinding. is it too late to take the CPU out of the system and is it ok to put back in after wards with the same heatsink? (you have been helpfull so keep it coming guys)

If you change the fsb from whatever it is too 133 it should work like johnoh said, if you change it your cpu speed will change NO MATTER WHAT. you have to save to cmos after you set it.

run a tiny cpu clock utility. they're free, small, and accurate. your bios is just guessing what label to attatch to your processor from a list in its memory. it's not detecting and reporting actual clock speeds. sisoftsandra works great, but if all you need is cpu clock info, there are MUCH smaller ones out there.