Hardware suggestions

[somuchfun]

This is not a complaint by any means, but when I take a photo or heaven forbid a video, it takes my laptop (seemingly) forever to render.

I have a 4x 2300GHz, 8gig RAM, ssd drive laptop and have increased Java usage to 2gs, which I would have thought would be pretty peppy, but it is not.

Of course "more" is better, but does anyone have any suggested hardware spec's to make rendering more tolerable?

Side question: does anyone do this for a living? I have really had a fun time building my new house with sweethome3d to the point that i might look at a new career in whatever this is...architecture? CAD?