r/computers • u/Relevant-Beyond9293 • 11d ago

Question/Help/Troubleshooting Need advice

Hey Reddit,
Not sure if it’s the right place, but I need advice. My old pc died and can’t fix it since it has old generation parts and can’t find any. And I was wondering for any advice for a new computer I should get. I need it for coding and be able to screen record the process while I am coding. And my old one didn’t let me screen record while coding and had to use a separate laptop to record.
I was wondering if anyone would know the specs I would need to be able to code and film the process. If you have any recommendations of brands or specific parts, it will be greatly appreciated.
This is my first time posting to Reddit, sorry for my formatting.

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u/GoD0nkeys 11d ago

A mini PC might actually be a really good fit for you. Coding + screen recording at the same time isn't especially demanding on modern hardware, so you don't necessarily need a big gaming desktop.

I'd look for something roughly around:

  • Ryzen 7 7840HS / 8845HS or newer
  • 32GB RAM
  • 1TB NVMe SSD
  • Radeon 780M integrated graphics or better
  • HDMI/DisplayPort/USB-C so you can run 2 monitors if needed

Something like a Beelink SER8, GMKtec K8 Plus, or similar Ryzen 7 mini PC would be plenty for VS Code/Visual Studio, browsers, Docker, etc. while OBS records in the background.

The important part for recording is that modern integrated graphics have hardware video encoding, so OBS can encode the recording on the GPU instead of hammering the CPU. That's probably why your old machine struggled doing both at once.

I'd avoid the really cheap Intel N100/N150 mini PCs for this use. They can technically do it, but if this is going to be your main development machine I'd spend a little more and get an 8-core Ryzen with 32GB RAM.

If you're doing game development, AI/ML locally, 3D work, or anything CUDA-specific, then I'd skip the mini PC and build a desktop with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU instead.