Quad-core upgrade

[Argonaut110]

RIG SPECCCCCCCCCCS
Sorry, just got my nice little pc running. Runs like a dream, just installed Il-2 1946, had some fun. Somehow, the specs blew me away and are utterly better than I last though, here goes:
Vista Business edition
Intel Quad Core @ 2.4Ghz (already installed so no purchase for me )
8 GB RAM
14GB Paging file (what's this?)
Nvidia Gefor..blahblahblbhlah (You know about this already, gonna replace it etc)

What i'd like to focus on is the 8GB Ram which really threw me back. How could this motherboard achieve this? Unless.. It's a different motherboard, but how would that explain the Q6600 (guessing) quad core? Maybe the previous owner could be bothered with more RAM (motherboard) but the same processor? If that's so, that means that new motherboard could support different processors so... this is gonna be interesting...veeeeerrry interesting...