That's why I wrote GPU scaling.

Verified that it is actually running at 120Hz?
Probably running through a terrible rescaler/rescaler doesn't deal well with 768->864 (8->9) upscaling.
Try GPU scaling.

Try unplugging the monitor, that usually removes all error messages.

Ok, assuming you read the output from HD Tune correctly, since you didn't post it, download this https://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm and run the short self test.

Which Seagate Barracuda 1TB? Please narrow it down to less than 20 models.
Not sure which Western Digital software you mean and why it would work with Seagte or be affected by formatting.
Use HD Tune or whatever, if the HDD doesn't even show up it's just dead or you didn't plug it in.

Which HDD?
How did you "initialise" it?
SATA set to AHCI or IDE?
S.M.A.R.T. output?

No, you're just an easy target. Can't ignore a setup that good.
Seems to be a bit of truth in it if you're that salty about it.

You're still looking for that one simple trick to get dm/aim like you've been playing dm/MGE for 10 hours every day.
That one simple trick is playing dm/MGE for 10 hours every day.

Is this your monthly "pls halp how i dm?!111!?!" thread?
http://www.teamfortress.tv/42957/any-good-tips-for-aiming-vs-scout-with-shotgun
http://www.teamfortress.tv/42406/asking-about-soldier-in-dm
http://www.teamfortress.tv/41565/how-did-quad-get-his-godly-tracking-skills
http://www.teamfortress.tv/40028/has-there-been-any-improvement
http://www.teamfortress.tv/39891/needing-some-feedback-for-soldier-movement

Like I said, using more threads != performance scaling with more threads.
The only thing that scales with the number of threads TF2 uses is the number of threads TF2 uses. That is not scaling and definitely not good scaling.
You should know that terminology. It doesn't help correcting a false statement with another false statement.

He's aware that it's not quite the truth but there is nothing to be gained by saying

All it leads to is you getting quoted when someone is mad about their new 16 core CPU not getting any more fps.
Which will lead to another thread like this.
Stop perpetuating that cycle.

I don't think that's the reason you've been missing rockets all these years.

#12
That is already how Turbo Boost works. If both the temperature and TDP allow it it will boost and in the long term neither will on a laptop.
Also 3.8 GHz is the single core turbo, 3.4 all core, so thanks to windows properly spreading the threads out across cores it might actually be faster with half the cores disabled.

#13
You know that the bottom part of a laptop is the computer? Why would a monitor come with that?

#14
It uses more cores, but it does not scale.
Doesn't matter if they are important things or not, they simply don't take much time.
If you give TF2 100 cores to use then I'm pretty sure it will use all of them for a split second, but even with 8 threads the synchronization takes up more time than is saved. It's barely noticeable because those parts of the code take <1% of the time anyway, so even if they are slower it doesn't really matter. I've explained it in detail before but I really don't want to go over this in every single thread.
I can say "TF2 doesn't utilize more than 3 cores properly" and someone will still post "TF2 doesn't use more than 3 threads", if they haven't done so already. I can then correct them only to tell them that it doesn't make a difference anyway because TF2 still doesn't scale. It's just not worth making the distinction for most.
But you should now better. Using an infinity number of threads is not the same as performance scaling with the number of threads. Because TF2 really doesn't.

Resolution doesn't matter, either you're limited by the CPU or the GPU or weird shit. The only reason to hit a CPU limit at 30% usage is bad/lack of multithreading.

2.8 GHz base vs 3.5 GHz, KBL vs HSW though, 100 vs 120 fps seems perfectly reasonable.
More than 3 cores or 2 core + SMT = 4 threads really doesn't do much for TF2.
~2 threads worth of load on a 4 thread CPU = 50% load, ~2 threads worth of load on an 8 thread CPU = 25% load, according to windows. Similar load, similar fps.
I don't see the problem here.

10% higher IPC of a newer architecture does not compensate for 20% lower clockspeed. As you've noticed (and I think it's been mentioned quite few times in other threads) the extra cores do nothing.

How do ~30% CPU usage and 10-30% GPU usage imply good scaling? Scaling with what?

As is often the case in life one can't have everything.
This is a classic "pick two out of three" scenario, with the three being living in a english speaking country, no speed limit on certain roads and shipping for monitors.

Not sure why you'd go for a 2 years old CPU, which is somehow above MSRP.
No SSD.
The PSU is nothing to write home about and simply not worth that price.