Ok Half-Life 2 is practically the reason I'm upgrading my CPU to an AMD 2500+, Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL, Kingston PC3200 Value RAM 2x256, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and 480W AntecTRUE PSU. I was reading somewhere that Half-Life 2 said that 512MB of memory is reccomended, but you "hardcore" types will want a gigabyte. They also reccomended a P4 2.8, but hey they're just trying get you to upgrade and buy products from ATI ever since their little partnership with the XT cards.
If you gaming, I wouldn't go any less than 512, but over that you're going to have diminishing returns. If you run alot of programs at once, the extra ram can help, but if I'm gaming, I don't run anything else (except stuff that should be running in the background). I don't know how much of a RAM hog HL2 will be, but I have noticed that the Unreal engine and anything based off of it tends to be a little more of a RAM hog. While 1 gig is more attainable today, I can't see 512MB being on the lowest end of a box for at least a good year or so.
I think the 512MB should be enough for now, but if you really want to I dont see why not might save you time upgrading in the future but I doubt you would need to any time soon!
It's not like I have the money to upgrade right now anyways But I could add 2 more 256 sticks right? 4x256MB on the Soltek?
It can be done, but usually we try to buy our memory all at the same time to make sure that the sticks are identical. It prevents problems because sometimes RAM can be picky. That doesn't mean it won't work though, but I suggest you buy a stick of the same brand and of the same speed as the two others once you decide to upgrade.
