Render times: what is expected?

Hello,

I recently went to render a project, and it estimated that it would take 44 hours to complete. That is, shall we say, less than ideal.

Some specs about my machine:

MacBook Pro

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM

The Disk Cache:

LaCie USB3 External SSD (200 GB allocated for cache)

Details about my AE project:

AE version: CS6

3:15 (3 minutes 15 seconds) duration

1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution

Ray-traced 3D environment

17 light layers

3 cameras

All other layers are either shapes, solids, pictures, or pre-comps

I'm trying to render out to h.264 format. It seems to me that 40+ hours is extremely excessive for a 3:15 long video, but I'm not positive that's the case. I'd love to hear thoughts back on expectations and how I can reduce this time (either through settings or better hardware).

Thank you!