Dual Corei5 vs quad corei5

I am planning on purchasing a new iMac in the next several months. My budget allows me to get either a 21.5" with a dual core 3.6GHz core i5 or a refurbished 27" quad core 2.8GHz core i5. The screen size is not an issue for me but speed is. Does anyone know what kind of speed differences there are between these two iMacs? The 3.6GHz has hyper-threading so there are 4 virtual cores where the 2.8GHz has no hyper-threading but has 4 actual cores.

I don't know what kind of test that is supposed to be. obviously, the quad core is faster. but honestly: you probably won't notice it. as you said, the dualcore has 4 virtual cores, plus you rarely need 4 cores for a normal daily work.
if you tell us a little more about what applications you use then it will be easier to tell you if the quadcore will be worth it.
but, if I were you, I would definetly consider screen size into the buying decision. I, personally, would find the 21.5'' way too small, it's so great to have the 27'' and have all the space you need no matter what you do. Maybe you don't care about that, but I would really consider it, especially if you plan on keeping the imac for a while

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