I5 (desktop) vs i7 (laptop)

What uses are you considering? In some instances such as games, the desktop will likely 'cream' the laptop - in others such as CAD or heavy video editing, the i7 should take the advantage.
The desktop has the advantage of upgrade/expandability which is extremely limited in any laptop

i agree, with upgrades the laptop is really really bad.

with desktops, you can easily change boards if it goes bad, you can also do that with laptops but i heard they are expensive. with the desktop you can swap basically any compatible board.

upgrading your gpu? check, good luck if you chose a laptop.

one more thing, after 2 years or so, if the laptop is no longer fast enough, you can buy another but it's such a waste that even the monitor goes with it

not sure where the other posters are going, talking about ugradability!!

to answer your question, yes, a desktop i5 3570 will outperfrom the top i7 mobile (3610qm) purely on clockspeed alone, the i5 being clocked at 3.4 and 3.9 turbo, the i7 mobile being clocked at 2.3 and 3.3 (turbo). Despite having 8 threads the i7 3610qm does not perform in games as the i5 3570k would. In other applications where threading may effect the outcome it may make a difference, as the i7 has 4 cores with 8 threads, but even still the i5 is one of the best CPU's available even when compared to the high end extreme CPU's for most normal tasks.

http://processors.findthebest.com/compare/818-833/Intel...

It depends on which two CPU's you're comparing, but for the most part the desktop Core i5 will be faster in tanks like gaming while the Core i7 will take the lead in converting, compressing and other intensive things.

i5 3570K will outperform a mobile i7 CPU in gaming, as well as other tasks.
Also, the desktop has the overclocking advantage.

You are overestimating hyper-threading, the i7 still only has 4 cores.

For games Desktop...every time...

All the best Brett  

It isn't much, but the 3610qm (7525) has a higher PassMark score than the 3570k. (7135)