Wildfir3: Sense make you not. Think of a logical explination for the downsides of more ram? ok, only 4gb is addressable on 32 bit archs. So more than that is pointless unless your using 64 bit (G5, AMD65, UltraSparc, etc) but i can't see how if you have a modern os (Mac X, Linux, windoze 2k,Windoze XP) you'd have a single problem with 2 gb. Why would anybody use an old and very crippled os like 98 or me for Audio? See above mentioned modern os, in order of preference.
Try and find the same address space argument in a comp sci textbook, you wont because it's crap. Not to go into excess technical details but it will really work better with more ram, no upper limit except for the above mentioned. The paging problem is much larger than the (more or less nonexistant) address space prob. The computer only looks as far as it needs to get get free ram. So it's not like it will hunt through some big street like they describe, it's just crap. It's an address lookup function so it doens't matter how long the street is because you go to the right place first off. I use a computer quite often with 8 GB memory (and 32 cpus), i don't make music on it though. :-)

If you are producing music using samples it's very handy to have a lot of memory. More memory means less page errors (swapping out to the harddrives) which means better response time. But using good software is more important.

Look into getting a Mac, designed much better for music, stability wise and performance wise. Notice how many live performers use non-mac laptops for gigs... almost none. You can also get a bunch of good free linux apps to run on Mac OS X which is nice. Ie http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Though truthfully i couldn't afford a mac (my 650 mhz laptop was only 350 euro) but i use Linux which is a lot more efficent than windoze so it's not quite as much of a problem. I recommend a mac though.

If you get a laptop something like the griffin imic is a good buy, or other usb interfaces. The imic sounds very nice for recording sets and playback and it's only 50 euro.

___________________
----------------
Fall in love with everything, fall in love with life. Just fall in love with music and you will get by. Ride in the night.
---

Greatest Tracks of all time:
YAHEL - VOYAGE
Planet Funk - Inside all the people (deep dish 80's tata)
Bob Dylan - anything by him... esp. Black diamond bay.

-----