Help, what do I have? Athlon 64 3500+ question

No, it is not a cheapy processor. What it is is "old", in the sense that the clawhammer was the first core design of the AMD 64 series CPUs. I think it was released in 2002 or maybe 2003.

After clawhammer came newcastle, and now the current version is called venice.

It does indeed have a bus speed 'equivalent' of 2000, but the AMD 64s don't actually use front side bus technology. Technically the "FSB" should be advertised as 1000, but the actual data transfer rate is double that.

I'd suggest getting only the venice core, if you want to stick with the 3500+. I have one, but I don't do SLI, so I won't comment there.

-Bob

If possible try to get a 3800+ It's a little slower but is dual core. This helps more if you run background programs. it should be under $200 next week. Have you ever looked at NewEgg? They don't sell many OEM chips so you'll get a good heatsink with it.

I like Tiger but they spam me like crazy.

if you already have the 3500 i would just keep it
it will work fine, it is same as the venice
except for
the clawhammer is 130nm which means more volts and heat
the venice is 90nm which means less volts and heat
they are both 2.2 ghz.
if you want to overclock, the older clawhammer is not ideal.

my brother has the same 3500 clawhammer
i overclocked his to 2.5 ghz before, it is now back to stock 2.2
his plays games the same as my 3700 cpu does

since you said that it is an oem cpu did it come with
a heat sink and fan?

if not buy an after market cooler for it
slap it on and you should be ok