Decision Time: (purchasing today)
Which laptop to choose - from this *short list* - (intended for running iClone 7.2 AND the Kinect for X-Box One mocap).

          Brand/model:                          Processor:         RAM type/speed      Sys drive:       HDD/speed:        Graphics:             V-RAM:       Screen:  DVD:
MSI GT72VR 7RE-610AU              Intl i7*4 2.8>3.8GHz     16GB DDR4 2400      256GB NVMePCIe  1TB (7200)       Nvidia GTX 1070       8GB GDDR5       17.3"    yes
ACER Predator 15FHD IPS            Intl i7*4 2.8>3.8GHz     32GB DDR4 2400      256GB M.2 SATA   2TB (7200)       Nvidia GTX 1070       8GB GDDR5       15.6"    yes
ASUS ROG GL502VS-GZ233T      Intl i7*4 2.8>3.8GHz     16GB DDR4 2133      256GB NVMePCIe  1TB (7200)      Nvidia GTX 1070       8GB GDDR5       15.6"     no

The CPU's are all Intel i7 7th Gen. (Quad Core).
The GPU's are all Nvidia GTX 1070
I'm not worried about 'screen size' or 'DVD drives' (mm... well I guess a disc drive *would* be nice) ....
I'm leaning towards the ASUS (the highest quality?  - ACER are cheaply built?) - not sure ....

One other thing ... the 'MSI listing' states: "Hybrid Graphics" - is this an issue? - should it be 'Dedicated Graphics'?
Thoughts???

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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

Hi, I'm ASUS ROG GL502V user & experince near 1 year. Good device for rough use, recommend it.

@akuei2 ... Yeah - I think you've possibly 'tipped' me over towards the ASUS, because, also - in the past I've owned a couple of ASUS laptops (much lower price tag though), and I was quite impressed by their quality and performance - (they're still both operational).   So you've 'confirmed' that for me.

Also - just a couple of hours ago, I was talking to an IT person who's had a couple of ACER laptops in the past - and he told me "they're poorly built" (confirming my suspicions on that) - My *current* ACER, - the 'Aspire E15' has failed to 'Aspire' to anything great - though to be *fair* it's at a far different price point ....
My *Gut* feeling - especially now with your experience offered here, is that 'ASUS' is the solid choice .... - it doesn't have any extra 'bells & whistles' - but it seems a solid choice.
thnx @akuei2

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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

I’ve been using an Asus GL702 for a bit a year now. No complaints here! I just switched back to Alienware just so I can use the graphics accelerator. Only reason. The Asus has been running like a champ. Also had an MSI back in iclone 6days that was rock solid. You should be good to go!

My "NEWEST" Latest  Movie Made With Amaaaazing iClone


—> High Noon”ish” in Narrow Valley<—

Hey kungphu ..... thanks for your thoughts ....
Yeah (I *hate* decisions) ... the MSI has 6 x USB ports - the ASUS only has 1x USB3.0 and 1 x USB3.1-C.
Also, the MSI's RAM is 2400MHz, the ASUS is 2133.
MSI has the DVD writer, ASUS doesn't ..... arghhhhh !!!

OK - done.
It's the MSI GT72VR 7RE-610AU 'bought', done and dusted ...

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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

kinect mocap is a lose of time. believe me. i try all possible options for mocap on my movie project. and the most affordable is the perception neuron ( not perfect but 100x better than kinect ) 

Thanks for your thoughts on this Wildstar - I respect (as always), your knowledge and experience.
Having already (only recently) 'invested' in the v2 Kinect and the Mocap software, I have strong reasons for trying to make it work ...
It's also meant buying a more capable PC - but that won't go astray since my iClone experience will improve greatly, plus creating FX in Fusion will be more of a reality.
But importantly, for the first time, all the proper gear for v2 capture will be in place - and I'll have the best chance at getting full frame-rate captures.
I've mentioned before about my limited (virtually zero) budget on all this stuff. That's true, but certain things, like driving the V2 can't be compromised on it seems. I'm *expecting* to get the full 30 fps, (probably *with* associated jitter), but once at that point, I'll see what's possible with 'work-arounds' etc.
I think it'll be the work-arounds that'll make or break the end result. I remain *hopeful* ....

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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

I think if you keep your expectations for the 1 Kinect RL version low you'll be fine.  And by "low" I mean REALLY low.

Like, if you want to capture someone seated and doing some very limited arm and upper body/head movements (no arms in front of body or each other).  Or, standing facing the Kinect (never turning away) and perhaps some *slight* leg movements forward or back.  The minute you exceed any of these parameters you'll be in for trouble (and you still, even with these limitations, will have to do some clean up.  Maybe a lot).

The problem with mocap, IMHO, is like a lot of things the more you do the more you want to do.  So as soon as you get, say, a really nice upper body capture you think "why not cross my arms in front of my chest?" and when it doesn't work you start exploring other solutions.  Which is how I ended up with the Perception Neuron (to be fair, I still haven't given it a decent trial yet, as I had issues originally I'm still working out.  But I remain pretty hopeful).  I've spent a LOT of money on mocap, but the results I've gotten have encouraged me to spend more and more.  I can see that, some day down the road (perhaps in another year) I'll end up buying yet another solution (even though the PN looks pretty great there are things about it I know I'll be unhappy with -- and you never have enough capture suits, assuming you have enough folks to wear them -- the thought of having two or three folks being captured simultaneously just makes me grin like an idiot).

I'll be interested to hear how you progress, and I'm sure you will do some nice things in the meantime, although the longer you do this stuff the more you'll want to do better (I do like some of my early stuff, but even things I did just a few months ago I know now I could improve.  I think if you ever reach a point where you DON'T feel this way you might as well give up animation).

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Hey Mike .. nice sentiments .... 
Reading your words, I do feel that I can *relate* to what you're saying - even though I'm by no means as far along as yourself with all this ...
Yes - a new pc (out of necessity for Mocap's sake) - yet very usable for iClone and Fusion nonetheless.
Yes, I'll try to be realistic with the 'expectations' regarding tbe v2 - I'm prepared to do some cleanup - and the 'action' can be constrained to background elements....  - Always enjoy hearing from you Mike  ..... 


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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

In re-reading what I wrote I don't mean to give you the idea you can't get some decent capture out of what you'll have.  And here's the good thing: if you *can* get some good stuff from the RL plugin, you can get 100% better from the Brekel one (which isn't that much -- I don't remember offhand but it's certainly not more than $100 or so).  And the one camera iPisoft is even that much better than the Brekel (and I think it's only $59 for a year).  Both of those have demos, so you can tell what you are getting into, but they will be logically steps up from the RL plug (which is pretty bad, honestly, although IIRC it does seating motions fine -- it's legs it really has a problem with).

So you can progress without spending too much (although if you follow the path I did you'll next head to the two Kinect iPisoft version, and then to some sort of capture suit like the VIVE or PN.  Again, it's always a progression because as humans who continue to want to improve our art we seek better and better tools.  Another way of looking at is is that we are always anxious for RL to release new versions of iClone and the associated software.  We are NEVER satisfied -- but I think that's a Good Thing).

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley