Does it get annoying to carry around a 17 inch laptop/is a 2.2ghz processor fast enough for gaming?

I must say the carrying my 17" laptop around even if it is just to the couch is kinda awkward. Sitting with it on your lap is awkward because it is larger than you. However, I am willing to deal with that small set back as I love having the large monitor. Also, I am fairly certain all the new i7 processors are quad core. in the original version I think there was a i7 mobile processor that was only dual-core (almost bought one). However, now I think the i7s are all quad cores. Also, laptops really are not the best for gaming, however having a i7 will definitely help with gaming performance.

i lived with a 17" laptop for five years and i'm so glad i moved on to a 15.6" as it pretty poor for portability so i avoided taken it out of the house which is a big negative to them, also the majority of the time no matter what brand you go with you don't really get much more for you money spec wise other than the extra 1.4" on the screen but pay so much more for it. If you intend on gaming with it my suggestion would be to look at a 15.6" and a 21" LED monitor/tv to go with it, not only will you have a machine that's highly portable & has the spec you want but you'll also have a secondary screen for you to game on. The sales are only a couple weeks away and 21" LED tv/monitors don't cost much to begin with so keep an eye out for a bargain and get a good all round experience :)

my stance on gaming laptops is they are not good at gaming nor are they good as laptops

they generally are under powered for gaming and they generally are too big, to heavy, not enough battery life to be a laptop.