2.7ghz quad core i5 or 2.7ghz dual core i7?

I'm looking at purchasing a new Mac but torn between which one to get. It will
mainly be used for basic day to day use, web browsing, word processing etc... My wife will do some photo editing and I will most likely play video games on it but that's not going to be an every day task.

I'm looking at the Mac mini 2.7 dual core i7 or the iMac 2.7 quad core i5. Both will be upgraded to 8gb ram. Common sense tells me the imac quad core would be the faster one and probably suit us more but I figured I'd be better off asking the avid users first. I do not own a mac so I'm a little hesitant to make the purchase without trying to do some sort of digging.

Thanks for the help!!

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    Intel has laptop and desktop processors with laptop systems being weaker because they have to run using less energy and less heat.

    As for your question, mac mini's use laptop processors and memory. therefore they are inherently slower because they have to fit in such a small casing. the iMac will have the faster CPU. The real concern depends on what you plan on doing with the machine. Seeing as your daily use mostly revolves around very basic tasks (web browsing, word processing, etc.), then both processors will be perfectly suitably for your needs. Even for playing video games or photo editing, both processors will operate very well. However, if demanding games is what you are aiming to play, then the iMac has the better graphics processor.

    Even though the mac mini has the slower processor, it is still classified as very fast for basic uses. If you need a much clearer picture, you can drop by any electronics store or Apple store that has Macs on showcase to try them out. I own a Macbook pro 13 inch from early 2011 with a 2.3 GHz intel core i5-2410m processor. I do video and music conversion as well as video and photo editing regularly and it is plenty fast. You won't be disappointed with either system.

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