Help with purchasing new Mac Book Pro- 2014 release vs. 2013?

Question

OK, so my 15" 2008 Mac Book Pro is on its last gasp--didn't help when I dropped it while open (I can now see into its innards though it's still working...sort of).
I'm not a technophile (mainly use my laptop for writing--my profession--and eBay business) so my sister told me to make sure that I had at least 8 GB and a fast processing speed. Retina display not necessary (her graphic artists friends hate it apparently) so that would lower the price; however it seems that there are two releases: Oct 2013 and July 2014.  Read up on the latest release but not sure how much is necessary for to have...or care about.
Can you all weigh in and tell me (a) how important it is to have "the latest and greatest" and (b) how necessary is Retina display and (c) which would YOU purchase if you had my budget constraints.  Thanks!
Anyway, I've narrowed down my choices of MacBook Pro purchases to what was within my budget: $1300 including tax.  I wanted a 15" but it was too much $$$$, plus I can just use an external monitor.
Both are available at Apple. Both come with 1 year and 3-year extended warranties and both have the standard software installed, including Pages.
One more thing....Wondering if having Flash Storage is important?  Only refurbished one (see below) has it.
Prices for both end up being almost the same--around $1250 out the door, including tax.
OPTION #1  NEW LAPTOP. July 2014 Release   NON RETINA DISPLAY
2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB - NOTE: I WOULD HAVE THIS UPGRADED TO 8 MG
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Accessory Kit
OPTION #2   REFURBISHED  -Oct. 14 Release - RETINA DISPLAY
13.3-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2560-by-1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage1
720p FaceTime HD camera
Intel Iris Graphics

Answer 1

Hmm... I'm not really sure where you found a July 2014 release without a retina display. I think it might be the old version because that laptop was last updated in 2012 (to my understanding. Also, your sister is kind of wrong, if you want a computer that will work well for everyday things, 4gb of ram is just fine. I have a three year old MacBook Air with 4gb of ram and do things in Photoshop, Illustrator, Pixelmator, FCP, etc. all the time running OS X Yosemite and it runs like brand new. However, if you want to future proof it, you might want 8gb so it can always run the latest OSes.
Flash Storage is amazingly fast compared to a Hard Drive. It also has no moving parts, therefore is much more durable, and much more likely to survive a drop than a Hard Drive (which would seem to be useful in your situation).
Also, I don't know why your sister's friends would hate the Retina display. Many people love it because it gives them the ability to edit pixel by pixel with perfect accuracy.
I would go for the Retina display. It has better specs for the same price so why not? Not to mention that it's much faster and will likely receive updates much longer than the new MacBook Pro without Retina display.
I hope I helped.
Austin