can i run starcraft 2 in 256MB or 512MB?

I am assuming you're talking about RAM. These are the minimum requirements for WC3:

400 MHz Pentium II or equivalent, or a 400 MHz G3 processor or better.
Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.
128 MB of RAM.
A hard drive with at least 550 MB of free space.

This is the bare minimun for the game to even run. My old computer barely met these requirements when WC3 came out and the game ran terrible. Load times were awful and the graphics were set all the way down and it still was choppy (that's more the graphics card however). Obviously the requirements for SC2 will be higher than this. How much no one knows yet. But I'm guessing at least 256MB will be the minimum. Meaning while it could run it would be terribly slow. A memory upgrade would be relatively cheap and definitely worth it. If you're running XP with only 256MB you'll notice a nice differene after an upgrade.

I think it would be like...

1 GHz Processor
XP or Vista ... or MacOS whatever...
256 RAM
DirectX 9c compatible VGA

... and 1.44 MBfloppy disk drive for installing the game...

One question however, will battle.net still only require dial-up? Not that that would be an issue for many people, but since most people have broadband now, and in the MSNBC interview he talks about some of the exciting new features of bnet, would it be necessary to have faster than dial-up connection?

Nope, SC2 will be ran off of DirectX 10c, from once again what I have read

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Huahuahua... OK... so we'll have to wait that long?

it says on the official website several times that it will run with direct10 X.
Look at the Q&A, they say it several times.

Quote from http://www.starcraft2.com/faq.xml:
Q: Will StarCraft II take advantage of DirectX 10? What other graphical goodies are included?

A: The game will be compatible with DirectX 10, and we're still considering whether there will be exclusive DirectX 10 graphic effects, but the graphics engine will also be very scalable to ensure that a wide range of different systems will be capable of running StarCraft II. The new engine is also capable of rendering very large units, as well as large numbers of units on screen together. Havok physics have been integrated into the engine for added realism as well.


I think Direct9c X ... ups... DirectX 9c would be the minimum requirement.

Did you mentioned bump-apping? Light reflecting? Consequences of this is more video
memory consuming as minimum. Next - shaders. As you can see on public screenshots
"warp rays" when strike distort space around the gun. It is a shaders. Thus you must pick up good crad with many many shaders conveyors. I.e. this IS NOT a JUST warcraft 3 engine. This is MORE POWERFUL engine. Plus animated backgrounds .... videocard might be a very good. And memory ussage I think will be more 512 mb for confortable play.
And... it is for mediom screen resolution, right?? What about "native" LCD (1280x1024)??
Think about it.

I think if you want to run SC2,you must have a processor faster than Athlon64 3000+ or Coredou E4300,1G of ram is OK and you must have a powerful Video Card such as Geforce7600GT or RadeonX1600 in Dx9c and Geforce 8800 or RadeonX2900 in Dx10.Screen... 16:10(1920X1200or lower)well be well supported.