What is the difference between these two processors? I am really up in the air between buying the 17'' macbook pro and the ASUS G73JH-A1

Macbook: http://www.apple.com/mac/whichmacbook/compare.html

ASUS: http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jha1-order-p-2731.html

I would like to pull the trigger today or tomorrow so any help you have would be greatly appreciated.

Desires: Fast, smooth, capable of running up to 12 tables with HUD and no problems at all, capable of running simple games like Warcraft 3 (not WOW)/Starcraft 2 (soon), etc.

Dislikes w/:

Macbook: Price ($2,500, $3k w/3 yr accident protection, which I kinda need as that's how I broke my last macbook)

ASUS: Too heavy, short battery life, don't really need the sickest graphics/gaming machine on the planet

Thanks for the help / Mac

The Core i7 is a more modern processor. It will beat the C2D in virtually every benchmark. The i7's edge is biggest in threaded applications such as video encoding; its edge is smaller in applications that do not benefit strongly from four processors cores. I assume Warcraft 3 might fall into the latter category.

The Core i7 is slightly inferior when it comes to energy consumption and battery life. However, it is quite efficient when idle and the latest laptops featuring Core i7 generally see better battery life than the first laptops that were released with Core i7 last year.

Btw, there is a third option: Intel just released a new series of dual cores (i3/i5/i7). (Yes, it is confusing that one of them is also called an i7.) Many newly-released laptops feature these processors which, imo, are suitable extremely well for 3D gaming and poker. My hunch is that Apple will adopt these processors with the next refresh of the MBP, too. MBPs are excellently designed laptops. If you can afford them, give them serious consideration. Although, iyam, it might be worth waiting for the product refresh.

For your needs the Macbook is perfect, no need for i7, not even close to needing i7.

edit, looks like this is not the quad core i7 chip anyways.

well the choice comes down to price and which you prefer both will work perfectly fine for what you want and almost seem like over kill. why dont you look at a 15.4" macbook pro, closer in price.