@ Mesh -
Per Alan Parsons, RAM is everything!
Why settle for only 8 GB? Memory has gotten very cheap lately. For dual-channel use, you'd want two sticks of exactly the same RAM. So, if you're system comes with two 4 GB sticks, then you'll actually be faster than if there's only one 8 GB stick in there. That said, if you DO have only one stick in there, you just need to get a second matching stick to get the performance boost.