Thing is, the non-retina machines have fans that constantly spin, vastly inferior cooling, way noisier and way worse battery life - even before you consider the retina display on the new machine and the several year old hardware in the classic...
If you're a tweaker, sure - you can stick 16 GB of RAM in a classic machine. You can do that in a retina if you order it with it. You also lose out on the PCIe SSD speed on the classic machine - and really, if you want to play system builder, you're opening up the can of worms that many people buy apple computers to avoid.
Been there, done that with upgrading and tweaking stuff - in my late 30s now, i just want to buy something appropriately specced, have it do the job i bought it for, for 3-4 years then replace it with the new one.
If you want to upgrade and tweak things, more power to you, but I deal with computer stuff all day at work (I'm an IT projects team leader / network / VOIP / system admin) and playing with hardware at home is the last thing i want to do with my free time now
edit:
OP: the big decisions you have to make are (and this is the process I used):
Do you want a quad core or a dual? Quad forces you to 15" - but unless you're doing high end stuff, dual is fine.
Is 13" screen too small? Or is 15" too big/heavy?
How much SSD do you need?
Do you need discrete GPU (and if you're thinking about high end gaming, MacBooks are not for you)?
Once you work out the above: pick how much SSD you need in the 13" machine and either buy an off the shelf model (this is how i decided on the 2.9 GHz 512GB) or order one online. Be aware BTO can get expensive real fast and you can end up paying 50% more for a machine that isn't really much better. Save the money to upgrade to a whole new machine sooner.
If you're going 15" for reasons of CPU power, I'd suggest stepping to the i7 to get hyper threading as it can make a big difference - but on the 13" machines all the CPUs are much of a muchness (the i5 and i7 in dual core is virtually the same). You're splitting hairs between 13" machine's CPUs really - the big factor is the SSD size you want.
If you have a special requirement for heaps of RAM, bump to 16 GB, but you're going to be very much a niche case if you do. If you don't know if you need any more than 8 GB, you probably don't.
Well I really don't know much about the guts of computers. I'm pretty good with everything else that involves them but the specs and insides and junk, I suck at. I honestly would prefer the 13 over the 15". I have no clue what I'l be doing yet. I don't think I'm going to try to get a job in video or PSA making, but ya never know. I do just want to make sure I have final cut on it and that I'll be able to run it smoothly if / when I have to use it.
I'm pretty sure without turning my laptop on that I have rn this is what my specs and crap are http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-6-Inch-Black-Laptop/dp/B002PY7OKI and after 5 years, it is so slow. half the time it's laggy and nothing ever responds. it takes forever to load stuff.
The desktop that I have and that I'm using right now, is my boyfriends old one. (attached photo) It's pretty nice and when I play sims 4 and minecraft there's no lag. sometimes the programs are slow loading but all and all it's pretty fast. It says 810 gb free out of 914 gb.
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