good day! im a bit confused. im planning to purchase an amd athlon x2 3800+ and an asus a8n-sli premium mobo for it. the cpu has 2000mhz fsb hypertransport while the mobo has only 1000mhz fsb in the specs: http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=704&cid=3 now, the question is - what happens to the unused 1000mhz fsb of the athlon x2 if the mobo only can handle 1000mhz as opposed to the 2000mhz fsb of the cpu? im really lost. any input would be much appreciated. thanks a lot! good day!

The CPU will still run at is normal speed but the Hypertransport bus will run at 1000Mhz rather than 2000Mhz. It isn't the same as an FSB. Either way, you should get a board that supports the 2000Mhz speed, as they are easy to find and shouldn't set you back too much. :) AMD Athlon 2800+ barton @ 12.5 X 176 : 2200mhz 1024Mb DDR400 RAM in sync MSI KT6 Delta mobo Leadtek AGP 6600 gt 128Mb 120Gb Seagate HDD

The Athlon64 has no FSB, it uses a HyperTransport bus which for S939 CPUs runs at 1000MHz (200MHz x 5). But like DDR-SDRAM, the speed is effectively doubled. Some places called it 1000MHz, some call it 2000MHz, & others refer to it as 2000MT/s...it's all the same thing. Have a look at where the X2 3800+ ranks on this CPU chart...if you're building a gaming rig, you may wanna reconsider: http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/page29.html

they are still respectable CPUs... doesnt AMD double-pump the FSB the way Intel quad-pumps it?? my specs: 1.0ghz P3, 512mb PC133, 120gb 7200rpm HDD, 128mb ATI 9200. perform regular maintenance and anti-virus/anti-spyware scans to keep you computer running smooth and strong. visit my home page'

Read again...the A64 does not have a FSB!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport

thanks for all you input guys! much appreciated. jam, what do you suggest if im building a gaming rig? youre right about x2 3800+ but im on the budget. so what do you suggest for a good gaming rig but affordable for a college student? just some clarification. so you mean amds with hypertransport have direct access to the devices? unlike the pentiums that uses northbridge and fsb to connect to ram and other devices? if thats the case, then amd owns intel. coz they have lesser bottlenecks. correct me if im wrong, im a noob a this. thanks again guys!