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I will be using the iMac for video-editing with Final Cut Pro. The basic configuration offered by Apple for the iMac 27 Quad Core is with i5 processor 2.8 GHz.... Will paying additional money for the i7 2.93 GHz benefit me?

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I think you should spend the money in either RAM or a solid state disk instead of cpu power, which as the answers stated there is not much power difference. There is a huge improvement in load times if you use Solid Disk state, but is quite expensive. – Nerian Jan 19 '11 at 15:54
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closed as not constructive by Daniel Beck, Mokubai, honk, Arjan, Mehper C. Palavuzlar Jan 19 '11 at 16:42

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Yes it will. The i7 processor is much better than the i5. The following link supports this http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/48391.aspx The main benefits of the i7 are hyper threading and triple channel. (as discussed the the article) If you ever need to upgrade for performance to triple channel (I don't know if you can do this with a Mac) it will greatly enhance the performance if your systems starts to bog down.

EDIT: If the comment on this answer is true, than it wouldn't be worth it to purchase the i7. Instead you should purchase the i5.

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It's a Lynnfield i7, which doesn't do triple channel (it wouldn't have any noticeable improvement on a desktop anyway). – Mircea Chirea Nov 11 '10 at 20:57
The i5 is a quad core part by the looks of it but the i7 is a quad core chip with hyperthreading, for some tasks the i7 will definitely win, from experience the quad core hyperthreaded chip seems about equivalent to five or six full cores depending on the task. – Mokubai Nov 11 '10 at 22:28
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Cores and SSDs matter. The best use of money would be to get the best CPU possible and put your own SSD in (unless you think Apple's prices are worth not having to do it yourself)

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