Karaoke Forums

I am tired of pulling out the discs and frantically looking for a misplaced disc when doing a party. What would you guys/gals suggest for a bit of modernization. A laptop w/compuhost or the Ubest harddrive/player to upgrade my system. I have a powered amp with passive speakers and a Mackie mixer. What are the advantages and dis-advantages of the two systems. Also since laptop prices have come down I could use a good suggestion for a laptop purchase if I go compuhost. I really don't know what the specs should be w/o going overboard or sacrificing quality. I want to do an upgrade for less than $1000. Is there anything about a laptop to advoid (I read in another post to stay away from "Vista". Is the Ubest system user friendly and simple. Its time to upgrade any help brings many thanks.

Don't know the UBest system, but I would stay away from it. You will be relying on a single vendor selling a less-than-ubiquitous system that may or may not grow with you. I doubt anyone here could help you with that system if you had problems (this is the first I have heard of that system and I have been watching for over 3 years).

A laptop with Compuhost can be obtained for $700 ($500 for hardware, $200 for software).
It wiill be continually improving as Compuhost has regular updates. And you will have ready support at this forum (and at Compuhost) to help you with problems.

Plus at the end of the day, a laptop has plenty of general utility.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Well if you were to get the hard drive player, i'd opt for the one from Acekaraoke.
http://www.acekaraoke.com/acesonic-kod- ... layer.html

It come with songs 550 songs already loaded WITH the original cdg's! Same price - actually looks like that same machine. One of our users has this one & is completely happy with it, plus it still plays cdg's as well!

For computer I use MTU Hoster - never an issue & easy to use.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

When purchasing a computer for compuhost is it best to buy a laptop with high memory (say 320) for song storage or would a portable harddrive be best. Also there are not a lot of options available in the $500 range laptop. Is there a brand & model you would suggest along with some specs.
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The Dell Inspiron 14 with 2G of RAM and 160G of hard drive is $449. It has a VGA connector, a Realtek soundcard. It is essentially what I use, and I have 16,000 songs (11,000 unique) loaded on it with no problem. It's $524 with a 320G drive.

I like internal drives. Fewer moving parts overall, fewer cables, less likelihood of failure.

There are also a couple of HP models which are in that range and would work.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I bought 3 HP laptops for my (dayjob) business just a few years ago, and every single one of them had to be replaced or repaired within two years. The only positive thing that came out of it is FedEx lost one of them when it was on its way back to HP, so they sent me a brand new one that was much better. It, too, has heat issues though; and I only carry it as a backup now.

I got a Dell Studio last year and I am really happy with it. Get lots of RAM.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I have both a dell and a toshiba. I bought both used separately on ebay for a total of $500. Both have plenty of specs to run my shows. I never use them for internet access except to download compuhost.

I started out with a 160 gb wd hard drive. In fact, I still use it for my shows. I did buy a 500 external hard drive and have all my music backed up on it. I believe it cost me about 70 bucks so I have less than 600 wrapped up in my pcs including back ups.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I used to use a laptop (for about 3 years) until 2 years ago. My husband does computer repair work, and as the desktop towers got smaller and smaller, I went to a micro tower and started using a desktop. The tower isn't hard at all to use. The pros to my set-up now is that if any one part goes out, it is easily replaceable. If it was the motherboard, my husband would have to do it, but if I were using a laptop and a memory chip went out, I would be out of business for the night unless I had a back-up in my car. If you are trying to stay within a limited budget, you can get very small desktops (slightly more aggravating than carrying a laptop) for less money than a laptop with more oomph. Now I just carry a few replacement parts. I am not computer savvy whatsoever, but I have had memory chip failures that were a problem in a laptop, but the show went on with my desktop. Just a suggestion....would save you some money. My husband's website is mcswilmington.com if you have any questions about specs or computers. He's very knowledgeable about computer stuff...

Thanks to all for the advice. Just like the V-rod forum this forum is great.

What do you think about this Dell for $569.00 ck this website at Best Buy if you have time and let me know. Thanks.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8036213682

It's the same one I recommended except with more RAM and hard drive. Should work great.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

What do you think about this Dell for $569.00 ck this website at Best Buy if you have time and let me know. Thanks.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?

Sorry, will never recommend best buy for anything. Worse after sale service of any fortune 500 company.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

You can find the beast deals on laptops, all from reputable retailers, updated hourly from here:

http://dealnews.com

Thanks for the tip and info.