Guild Wars 2

Hi this is my first post on the forum and I would appreciate your help.
I have decided to downgrade my tower Pc to a tiny cube Pc. I only really use my Pc for playing guildwars 2. The Pc I am using now has a 7970 Graphics card.
I have been looking at maybe a zotac Magnus EN 980
Specs
Processor Intel Core i5-6400 (quad-core 2.7GHz, up to 3.3GHz)
ChipsetIntel, NVIDIA
System Memory 8GB DDR3L SODIMM
Graphics
Graphics Engine NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 980 w/ 4GB GDDR5
Video Output 2 x DisplayPort 1.2,
2 x HDMI 2.0

Or maybe a GIGABYTE BRIX
Specs
Features latest Intel® 4th generation Core™ processors – i7-4710HQ
Supports discrete graphic card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 GPU with mini HDMI x2, mini DP Output, featuring triple displays)
Supports 2.5” Hard Drives (1 × 6Gbps SATA 3)
Ultra compact PC design – 0.88L (59.6 × 128 × 115.4 mm)
1 x mSATA SSD Slot
2 x SO-DIMM DDR3L Slots (1333 / 1600 MHz)
IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 4.0 Mini-PCIe card
4 x USB 3.0
Gigabit LAN

Would either of the above run Guildwars 2 without any problems? Any alternatives/suggestions would be appreciated.

Pre-made or custom build?

I’d advise getting an 1060 3GB over an 980 4GB.
Too tired for any other advise atm :P

What resolution and quality setting are you looking at? Almost all modern CPUs/GPUs will run GW2… but it does depend how pretty you want it to look. My i5 Surface Pro 3 runs GW2 with its iGPU, but it thermal throttles crazily even at lowest resolution and quality settings.

My biggest concern with those tiny HTPC style boxes is their heat management. I’d suggest an ITX form factor build with a good case. That way, you keep the flexibility and heat management of a traditional PC in a smaller box.
http://www.corsair.com/en-au/obsidian-series-250d-mini-itx-pc-case
https://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/chassis/phenom-mini-itx

I’d also suggest to build your own itx machine.

I personally downsized from matx to itx last Spring and love the smaller footprint.

But one thing – you have to make sure you plan components, cables and airflow carefully to ensure good heat management. For example my case is a Fractal Node 202 and it’s got a pretty stupid design for the graphics card compartment as there is no direct aide exhaust for the heat – so it all rises into the upper chamber. However I have managed this with some compromises and so far over the last 7 months or so it has worked nicely.

IMHO, neither of both.
These type of barebone tend to be way more expensive than the necessarily and don’t manage heat very well. Their cooling performance can be awful and with a game like Gw2 that pushes beyond the boundaries, you can expect shut downs or heavy throttling due to overheating.
The Magnus EN 980 seems to be ok with the temperatures, but this is because it’s quite more bigger than most barebones, you’re looking at a 4kg with nearly 6L. And for the 1600$ it costs you can get an insane rocket pc.

If you want to get a smaller, but still capable pc, you should be looking for mini itx builds.

Would concur that a mITX sized motherboard is the minimum for gaming.

I have two gaming systems built around the following case:

Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Cube Case with Fan.

This has a 200mm fan in the front. Only things to watch out for is the length of the graphics card and that your cpu cooler doesn.t obstruct ram or first pcie slot – common considerations of almost all mITX cases. Other than that you’re free to easily construct a fine gaming PC.

Pcpartpickers is a good source of PC specs.

Assuming a £200 graphics card you can build a high spec gaming PC – with all new components – for under £600 – second hand your looking at £450.

Note, there is a upgraded version of the above case which adds some dust filters. Nor am I saying the case is the best available rather that you’ll have very few complaints about it and that its an easy case to do a build.

Can now say that you would have to spend a shocking amount of money on a CPU to bottleneck a RX-470 whilst playing GW2 at 1080p.

{Just got mine yesterday}