The Ekpyrotic Universe

( Computer Specs )

EDIT ( For an extra $60 I can get this instead )

I don't seem an ethernet card listed anywhere. Is it safe to assume the computer comes with one or should I call them to find out?

Another Edit Thanks to all who responded. I've ordered the second system. It'll be here in 2 weeks.

I intend to buy a new computer, but I have a processor question.

My current computer is 3-4 years old. It has a 3.39 Ghz processor and a gig of RAM.

The Dell I'm considering has a quad processor at 2.66 Ghz It'll have 4 Gig of RAM.

How do the 2 machines compare in speed? In other ways?

The day before yesterday I was playing City of Heroes when my monitor suddenly went black. I checked the PC and I could still hear it running, so it didn't simply turn off. I rebooted (the hard way, holding the power button for 8 seconds) and the monitor came back on and everything was fine for around 3 minutes when the monitor froze. I tried again, same way, and this time the monitor simply said "cannot read digital signal". One more time and got back to the 3 minutes ok, then freeze.

I turned the machine off for the night, thinking it could be overheating, the video card was going bad or the CPU was giving up the ghost. Yesterday I got canned air to clean out the machine and planned to switch to an analog cable to see if the problem was specifically digital. I blew a ton of dust out of the machine and cleared one of the screens on the back that had become completely covered in dust. Then I turned the monitor to gain access to the cables and lo and behold, the monitor cable had partially fallen out...

I'd priced out 2 machines yesterday: A Dell at $2100 and an HP at $1950. Fortunately, I think I won't need to buy either. I pushed the cable back in and everything seems to work fine. I started City of Heroes and was dismayed at the pixillation, but I'll try re-seating the cables on both ends and hope that makes a difference. I'd like to get 1 more year out of this machine. And at least now it is clean!

In a follow-up to yesterday's post about floppy disks, I went through the other box and managed to get rid of 90% of the disks in there. I now only have a few to check (comparatively) and will begin doing so as soon as I find the drive. I have a USB 3/5" external floppy drive, I just don't know where I packed it.