Help with Choosing a Laptop

Hello All,
I would be very grateful for advice on the purchase of a new laptop. I will try to be brief;
I will be using the laptop for a lot of Photo editing and some Video editing. I will also be using it for some Gaming (RPG/First person shooter type)
My current laptop is a Intel Core2Duo T9600 2.80 Ghz, 8 GB Ram, ATI Radeon HD 4650 and takes about 3 minutes from the time I turn it on to the time I am able to open a program. Data transfer is very slow as well. Gaming not so terrible.

I have a little extra cash (always nice) and I think it is time to update. I have the following 2 systems I am looking at;

Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 Laptop - 08626JU - Dusk Black (with USB 3.0)
Processor: 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor ( 2.2GHz 1333MHz 6MB )
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 1GB
Total memory: 8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz
Display: 15.6" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768
Camera: Integrated 2.0MP Camera
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200
Optical Drive: DVD Recordable (Dual Layer)
Network Card: Intel 1000 BGN Wireless

OR

HP dv6tqe series $1,274.99
Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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Processor 2nd generation Intel(R) Quad Core(TM) i7-2720QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 3.3 GHz
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Graphics card 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7470M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
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Memory FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
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Hard drive 750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
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Display 15.6" Full HD HP Anti-glare LED (1920 x 1080)
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Primary optical drive Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
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Networking 802.11b/g/n WLAN
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Some of my big questions are;
Will I really notice a difference in speed between the HP with i7-2720QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) VS the Lenovo with i7-2670QM Processor ( 2.2GHz 1333MHz 6MB cache )
Which is the better Graphics card between the; NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 1GB or 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7470M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics
As for speed, should I go for a lower end i7 processor and spend an extra 200.00 and get 12GB of Ram or is the RAM not as essential for speed and data transfer as processor? OR Put 200.00 more out and get an i7-2820QM (2.3 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) ?
I guess I am asking which system is the best bang for the buck. I can go as high as 1400.00, but I would prefer to stay around 1000.00.
I thank you all in advance for any help/advice.
Wayne