In other news, Gabe Newell has stated that Counter-Strike: Source will start pre-loading the 300MB monster for those eligible (Cybercafe owners, Condition Zero owners) on August 5. The actual release date for this beta version, will be August 10. Read on for more information.

This shall be important to follow. If you have broadband you will definitely want to leave Steam running for August 5 as the network, although Valve has said they are taking preparations, will still be hit hard over the five days until it's release. After that, it is likely it will still be under some heavy usage for a few days. This is a two-part process, users will want to prepare just as Valve is. The transfers will likely be slower than normal updates either way.

For connections such as Single ISDN or dial-up, you may want to wait after the initial day or two before you attempt to pre-load or install the beta. It will be especially slow and will not be worth the struggle more than likely at first.

Note: The Half-Life Dedicated Server (for Source) will also be released upon this date (although no word yet on Linux) so cafe owners will be able to host servers.