Highschool student with MacBook questions

[pika2000]

Since all the current Macbook lineup are using SSD, the only concern I would have for longevity is the battery. I would definitely get AppleCare.

My oldest Macbook that I still have is a Macbook Air from 2012, and the only hardware issue I had was a display issue (occured around a month before Applecare expired).

Another advice, please make sure you take a good care of the laptop. A service center denied me AppleCare claim because I had a small dent on the body. Although Apple phone support overrode it, it's still an annoyance. So don't just throw the laptop around.

 

[Closingracer]

Good point. However, I would estimate that my method would give a better performance than a base model retina.

Good to consider:

Advantages of base model retina mbp
-battery life
-screen
-faster storage
-very thin and light

Advantages of upgraded non-retina mbp
-better processor (not 100% sure, but I think it is still better than base rmbp)
-more ram
-storage can be upgraded

So, you are right, the base model retina mbp does have more positive points. Retina screen should count as two points, it does look really nice. However, 128gb storage may not be that futureproof, depending on your major in college.

Looking at clock speeds doesn't mean one processor is better. Lets say I found a laptop with a 4th Gen ( Haswell) i5 dual core clocked at 1.5GHZ and say a Pentium 3 clocked at 1.5GHZ also a dual core. Obviously the 4th gen i5 would be a better product because I believe it is 5 generations better? Same reason why you can't compare say an AMD A10 and an intel i7 or etc even if they are rated at the same clock speed