Two other quick thoughts:
1) I presume you've already increased SOLRAM (the memory allocation in the Options dialog box) from the default 128 MB? 4-8 GB might be a better first guess.
2) In case you haven't found it, the Edge Length by Curvature mesh control is good for putting elements where you need them and not where you don't. It can even be applied globally on some models. Somewhere between 2.0 and 1.0 (lower is more aggressive) is a good starting point.