Just as with a desktop, I have all our laptops build to our specifications for our engineering office where 2D / 3D CAD is the primary tool which governs component selection. And for that, you want an i7, a good GTX card, 16 GB of decent RAM and an SSHD for storage.
However, what type of design work is being done will determine those components. If we were doing rendering for example, then a Quadro based card would be more appropriate. Because there's no middle man, and buying direct from distributor, you will typically obtain a laptop for about 70% of what the boutique shops charge,
We get ours from LPC Digital and spending more than $1750 - $2,000 or so has not shown to be of any benefit to productivity.
http
/www.lpc-digital.com/sager-np8678-special.html
Clevo P670RG - $2,020
17.3” Full HD 16:9 LED-Backlit (1920 x 1080) Clear LG IPS MATTE G-SYNC Technolog
Guaranteed no dead or partially-lit pixels for first 30 days of purchasing
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M with 8GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® G-SYNC™
6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
Windows® 7 Professional 64-Bit Edition Preinstalled, (with 32/64-Bit DVD Recovery Media) +$130.00
16GB DDR4 PC4-17000 2133MHz Memory (2x8GB)
256GB Samsung® 850 Pro Series SATA 6Gbps SSD $120.00
Intel® Dual Band Ultra Wireless-AC 8260 M.2 AC + Bluetooth 4.2 Combo Card
LIFETIME Limited Labor and 2 Years Premium** Parts Warranty
FREE UPS Ground
We usually add a Seagate 2 TB SSHD for data storage.
Other options:
Win 10 is cheaper
6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6820HK Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz) $125.00