If you use 2 8GB sticks at 1600mhz, it should handle it. But if you use 4 4GB sticks at 1600mhz, I think it will automatically be downclocked to the 1333mhz that your computer is probably at now. Depending on what kind of applications you're going to be running, you may or may not even need the extra RAM. I've got 16GB in mine, and I will sometimes do some Virtual Machine work where I need to have a lot of RAM (8GB for that 1 machine), but other than that I don't think I've ever really been over 6GB just using Windows itself or playing a game. Almost every program is still based on 32bit, so memory usage isn't going to be that high