Very True, bad assumption on my part.  As with anything that requires finesse the correct answer is often *it depends* :D

(or at least a 50/50 chance the answer will be *depends*)

12 Gig will be fine. If you end up with 12 gig it's likely because you have the tri-channel ram and 16 wont be an option. Enjoy your retirement.

Hi Amp Fixer
You are right there .I have a tri channel ram configuration and 12 Is the max.
Thanks also for everybody's Input here
I certainly hope this retirement goes well!!.
 
"MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU"
 
ALL THE BEST
 
Also John

sounds like you're fine...Doc's suggestion is rubbish.
 
I got along for many years on 8 gigs... as I moved into huge sample based Kontakt instruments where I wanted lots of large samples to be loaded and stay "resident" or on line for immediate access, I increased ram as I upgraded my system not out of need necessarily but to future proof... 
 
Right now I'm using quite large orchestral templates and still am fine so haven't felt the need to add more ram.  Also, Kontakt has a fairly decent system for loading partial samples and streaming the rest so you should be fine for a long time.
 
Better spend available funds on things like SSD's, which are also way cheap at the moment.  These can be reused as you upgrade down the road.  Replacing your motherboard, cpu, and ram is no cheap adventure... Better to wait until you are slamming your cpu with some of the cpu hungry vsts out there...you'll know that before ram becomes an issue...
 
Enjoy!
 
BTW, I'd suggest adding your system specs and other aspects of your rig to you sig, as I and others have done... it will help down the road in responding to many of the future questions you might have without us having to ask those questions.

Sad to say I'm up to over 50 gigs now of my 64 .. already having to cut back to avoid crashes.  What ever you have you'll probably find a way to use. 

williamcopper
Sad to say I'm up to over 50 gigs now of my 64 .. already having to cut back to avoid crashes.  What ever you have you'll probably find a way to use. 

you're a special case, william... vegas and all your orchestral goodies'll do that... I'm gettin' ready to snag the Vegas Suite myself and assume an upgrade might be in order once I start creating climate vids over my songs... set for up to 64 but only using 32 at the moment... my piddly fanless graphics is gonna have to go first though, I'd imagine...