help - FSB speed

[Rayden]

could someone tell me what FSB or bus speed on a CPU is?
Im asking this because i just got a P4 1.5 ghz cpu and MSI 850 Pro 2 and im trying to figure out why i got such a bad score in 3dmark2001.

P4 1.5 ghz, 256 pc800 ram, and a geforce 2 gts should score around 3400. But i scored a high of 1900. I am wondering if this is because of my FSB speed. 3Dmark2001 diagnostic said that it's set at 100 mhz. here is the site with my set up and benchmark score.
http://gamershq.madonion.com/products/orb/?3d2k1_details.shtml?&prid=1629311
it has everything there is to know about my computer.

I am guessing that the FSB is set to a very low speed, which is why i scored so poorly. (i just looked at an Alienware Area - 51 P4 1.5 ghz, and it's FSB is 400mhz.)

so my questions are:
what is FSB?
and if possible, how can i safely change this if it was incorrectly set to 100mhz?

Thank you for your answers.

 

[Scootin159]

it is 100mhz on a p4 (by default), but it's QDR, so therefore you have an effective 400mhz FSB.

 

[DarkMajiq]

I can't help you with your 3DMark score, sorry, but I can explain the 100/400MHz FSB issue. The FSB of the P4 is 100MHz. However, this is quad-pumped, kind of like DDR RAM, but it's 4 times. So, a 100MHz FSB yields you 400MHz effective. The 400MHz figure is often touted as a selling point, but is not entirely true.

Edit: D'oh! Beaten to the punch! And I had this message typed and sitting here for 10 minutes before remembering about it and posting it, lol

 

[Scootin159]

sure ya did

 

[Duvie]

As mentioned above your 100mhz fsb is listed correctly, but it is quad pump making it effectively 400mhz as alienware is posting.

This could be many issues from:

1)correctly installed drivers
2)ram
3)harddrive speed and setup correctly (ie dma)

most likely one....