MacBook or MacBook Pro?

Well you can typically get more for your money with a PC and i generally think they're better (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101243 if you're interested) but if you're on no budget, and you indefinitely prefer macs over pcs then i recommend going with the Macbook pro, and as for your computer questions 2.7 ghz is the measure of the processor which is a key factor in buying computers. and dual core just means that the processor is going to literally be 2 processors put together which greatly improves multitasking. the "4GB 1333MHz" is just the specs of your Ram (Random Access Memory) which controls the speed of the system generally. also "500GB 5400-rpm1" is fist of all the Amount of space on your hard drive (500 gbs) which is quite a bit if your using it for just home school and such. second, 5400 rpm is the speed that you can access your hard drive 5400 rpm happens to be the lowest speed available on all computers for hard drive so you're really not getting anything special for that. lastly the 1 on the end is referring to the hard drive "cache" which is just the temporary memory on the system