Help building a 120hz gaming system for CS 1.6

Is the I3 definitely enough to play at full fps with no issues for CS 1.6?

And what other graphix card and other components should I be looking at?

Thanks!

You could build a ~$400 system like this and I would be pretty surprised if you ever dropped below 60FPS.

AMD Athlon II X3 455 Rana
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB)
ASRock 880GM-LE
XFX HD-667X-ZHF3 Radeon HD 6670 1GB
Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
Rosewill R101-P-BK
LG 22X Super-Multi DVD Burner

After a $15 rebate, that come to $400 on Newegg.

Regardless of the refresh rate (120Hz) I don't think you would even notice the difference between 60 and 120FPS, you wouldn't even notice the difference between 40 and 60. So long as it's consistently over 30-40FPS you won't notice any lag at all.

In terms of the system, you could run this game on a toaster. It's the internet connection that makes most people lag. If your ping is over 100ms it can get annoying for this type of game.

I don't think you will ever get lag on CS 1.6 on that $400 system I specced but if you wanted to get a better system anyway, you could go for something like this:

For $700 you could build this:

i3-2120 - $119.99
Mushkin Silverline 2x4GB 1333Mhz - $39.99
ASRock H61M/U3S3 - $69.99
Sapphire HD 6870 1GB - $164.99
Crucial M4 64GB - $99.99
Seagate Barracuda 500GB - $84.99
Fractal Design Core 1000 - $39.99
Corsair CX-500 500W - $59.99
LG DVD Burner - $15.99

Total - $695.91

That would run games better than my current system and I've been happily playing Skyrim/BFBC2 etc. on ultra high.

I think certain people notice it, most people won't. I'm sure you will agree though that the $400 build I suggested would blitz it.

No doubt, it would also allow him to play other games as well. Although personally I would go with a g20/h61 but I must admit my Athlon x3 served me well.

All the frames above your monitor refresh rate is wasted. Basically, if you have a 60hz monitor, if you maintain a 60fps minimum at least, all fps over that is wasted.

The same occurs with the 120hz monitor and the 120fps mark.
Since CS 1.6 is a light game, if you assemble an overkill setup you could benefit from the high amount of generated fps to turn on the Vsync (stop the screen tearing), and still suffer from minimal mouse lag.

if you really want something to play cs 1.6 with a 120hz monitor/tv
and really give you insane non lag stuff then go with this

-intel i7 3960X sandy bridge-e @ 4.5Ghz-4.8Ghz safe level
-asus rog extreme IV/V which one is out
-64GB G.SKILL RAM 1600mhz
-XFX the black edition something with dual fan 7970 in quad fire (X4 7970)
-seasonic x1250w psu
-silver stone tj11 or coolermaster cosmos II
-corsair force gt 120gb ssd or go raid 0 of these if you really want an imba loading time
-Western digital caviar black 3tb
-samsumg blu-ray drive
-lg x24dvd writer drive
-6400dpi razer mamba 2012/tt something 6500dpi mouse(cheaper)
-razer vespula mouse pad for either control or speed easy switch
-creative sound card
-creative speaker

then your all set, im sure you have really play it at an insane non lag experience, well there might be some lag on whatever reason it could be but yeah this set up is more what i call overkill

if you experience any LAG with this then it's just your internet

if you want, an amd phenomii x2/x4 black edition is good, 8gb ram is more than enough totally, sapphire hd 6850 is really good but for something like 120hz at 1920x1080 then get a hd 6970 2gb (single) but if you want improve fps get them in 2-way/3-way/4-way crossfire

This would be overkill even if he wanted to play BF3 across 3 monitors in 3D. We are talking about a 10 year old game here. He would probably get more lag with that setup because of microstutter.

That 120hz BenQ monitor is a dream.

FPS NEEDS to be 100fps for CS 1.6 otherwise you're screwed.

I'll be honest, my old Athlon XP2200 + 6800LE 256mb could max it out @ 100fps 1080p.

In case you want to step it up a notch (A lot of CS 1.6 Players migrate to SCII for continued competitiveness) Then I would suggest an i3 2100 system with a 6790 GFX Card, a H61 Mobo and 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz. That will be able to input a billion fps for 1.6 and keep you in the 60 range for most other things on medium settings (100fps Fraps should be doable too)

Just a quick question - I play @ 800x600 - I find anything higher isn't right. In fact I've been slated even for using that, most of the pros I know still run 640x480. Any reason why you wanna play higher?

A higher resolution means there are more pixels on the screen, this means it will usually appear more detailed but things will appear smaller. For some older games high resolutions will make the UI unbearably small.

Normally I'd say high resolutions since it would look more detailed but deadjon may be right with lower resolutions being better for more competitive play.

Do I need an operating system for this type of set up? Just for gaming - CS 1.6 only?

How would I find this out - and will the Linux make any difference in game play compared to Windows?

Grab windows 7 64bit

CS Plays fine on it.

well he won't experience much lag based on when i play it if i compared it to this other system of mine after doing some check.

i7 3930k, 7970 in xfire, compared to this ones

i5 2500k, gtx560ti 2gb in sli

phenomii x4 gtx 560ti 2gb in sli

phenomii x6 1090t hd 6970 in xfire


i3 2100 hd 6870 xfire

all of these are at 1920x1080, 1440x900, 800x600

also tried it with my dell studio hybrid (this one caused me some lag)

all settings on high, and based so far on multiple test, it's either i didn't see MS on my 7970 compared to my 560ti's, hd 6970/6870,

and the only overclocking i did would be my cpu, just to match some of them to the gpu im using, although those MS doesn't really affect much gameplay well at least those on my level which is at average or below average at cs 1.6

oh and my dell studio hybrid plays on vista 32bit compared to the other 64bit

but im sure he can live with some core2duo as it works nicely on my dell studio hybrid and that using some built in graphics, so if he were to use something like a gt 210 or a 8800/9800 it should even be more than enough of what he need and some nice 2.7ghz-3.0ghz speed for whatever case might happen, some good internet speed and of course using a single card just to prevent ms, and well for a 120hz monitor i don't know much since i don't own one but if you need a more powerful card take a look at gtx460 or those hd 5xxx should help him out, and even 2gb-4gb ram is more than enough,

I am leaning towards an I3 or I5 and at least 4gb of ram, any other suggestions on what I will need to run this game and the 120hz BenQ monitor?

Thanks!

No. 120Hz is not just for over 60fps. Everything will seem a lot smoother with no screen tearing.