Trading my Gaming laptop for a gaming desktop

[dragonwolf8504]

I plan on trading my gaming Laptop for a gaming desktop on craigslist (locally)

Specs of my laptop:
Samsung Series 7 Gamer:
Intel i7-3610QM 2.3GHZ
16GB PC3-12800
2x 750GB 7.2K RPM HDD
Nvidia GTX675M 2GB GDDR5 256-Bit
17.3" 120Hz 1920x1080 Display Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

I am looking at AMD and Intel builds, but what I want to know since Mobile and Desktop systems are different, is what would be an AMD or Intel equal to my laptop. The cpu and gpu specifically. So would say an i5-2500K and a GTX XXX (fill in the number) or an i5-2500K and a Radeon HD XXXX be equal. I'm trying to find what would be equal or better than my laptop and go from there. (I know some are obvious such as an i7-3700 series.

Thanks for all the help ahead of time.

By the way, I already have a small Asus Gamer laptop that fulfills my portable gaming needs.

Update: I went with an i7 in my laptop as I was doing video and audio encoding for school and read that the i7's were better then the i5's at doing this. The i7 has done just great for gaming as well. I have read that the i5's where really all you needed for gaming, with some even saying the i3's where good enough. (I do like having extra power, so an i5 would be the lowest i'd go most likely.) Anyhow, I know there can be a difference between the mobile and desktop platform, and that most Desktop i5's are quad core w/o hyperthreading. (Most mobile versions of the i5 are dual-core w/ hyper threading.) I just want to make sure I get equal or greater performance is all really.

 

[tiny voices]

The CPU doesn't matter nearly as much as you think.

You want a good GPU. gaming is 80% GPU and 20% CPU.

An i5 system with a good GPU (hd7870/gtx660ti) is what you want to look for.

Thee is not really any gaming performance increase between an i5 and an i7. It is just wasted money.
8gb RAM is all that is needed for gaming because games use only 3.3gb MAX.

 

[JamesSneed]

The stock i5-2500K is pretty close in comparison to your i7-3610QM from a pure CPU performance perspective. http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-3610QM-vs-Intel-Core-i5-2500K

The i5-2500K has a major advantage in single threaded tasks with its higher clocks. With a little overclocking on the 2500K and it will be hugely more preformat than your laptop CPU. Something around the I5-2500K is perfect for gaming. I would not step up to the I7 desktop chips as its simply a waste of money for a gaming rig.

Spend all your extra budget on a GPU like a gtx 760 which is comparable to the more expensive prior gen gtx 670.

 

[ingtar33]

any 4 core (or more) gaming desktop with atleast a 7950 or 760 gpu will probably kill that laptop. since an i5 is the lowest you'll go get an i5-3330p, some solid h77 motherboard, and atleast a 7950 or 760 for your gpu. you'll be golden.