Have you considered or looked at the Apple Certified refurbished Store?
Same warranty as new Macs but often 15-25% off..... and they look brand new 🙂
I have bought refurbed Apple Certified devices for years.. and not a single problem with any of them... I wouldn't ever buy a new Apple device, based on my experiences, if there is an option to buy a refurbed model instead 🙂
Here is the US Store link... (If you are in a different country, search for Apple Certified refurbished store in Google)
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
You might then be able to get what you want/need within your budget...
Current example on US Store...
Originally released March 2015
i7 3.1Ghz Quad Core
13.3-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2560-by-1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch
16GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage1
720p FaceTime HD camera
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
$1799 (20% off )
Notes: The units come and go very quickly... so keep checking for the ideal unit if there isn't one when you first check, in your price range.
Finally I recommend a Quad Core over a Dual core due to the performance gains when using a CPU intensive app like Logic Pro...
should I buy a PC with 16gb ram 2tb hard drive with i7 and a discrete graphics?
Sorry, can't recommend any PCs as I'm a Mac only user these days... and so my experiences with PCs in recent years, is very limited.