I find myself wondering if there is a software problem going on. Impurities in your meridians so to speak. If there are other things blocking the flow of your pc's resources then obviously that would be problematic.
Well for RAM you need to get DDR3 SO-DIMM type. Maybe Kingston or Corsair? But you need to check if your OS already 64 Bit or not. Because 32 Bit only can handle 4 GB Memory. For SSD you maybe can use a SSD caddy to replace your optical drive to ssd.
also if you are thinking of getting a new ram you better get ddr4 than ddr3 becoz that would be just wasting money
Can the app support hyperthreading? Even if you did will it be able to hit the threshold where hyperthreading comes in play? you're requesting help from a laptop which cannot provide quad core . What you need to look at is the speed of the intel core in which some cases i3 can be faster at processing than an i7. You're right, it doesn't make processing faster but you'll never be able to increase rendering speeds on your laptop to optimal, you're better off with offloading any processes you can to a separate entity.
yes, that is what I did cause i'm poor cry. Also you might wanna buy a monitor too. (although you could connect to the labtop if it has a hdmi slot or something. i believe.)
it has HDMI out based on this web : http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/z-series/z40/#tab-tech_specs
I doubt very many laptops have HDMI inputs, but yeah, the best option would be a budget gaming build. You could use secondhand parts, maybe
Crucial 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3L-1600 SODIMM This seem to be compatible with your laptop according to their website. http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Lenovo/lenovo-z40-70
My laptop spec is the i7 4510U, 2.0 GHz, DDR3L-1600. Here is the output of dmidecode: Spoiler: dmidecode # dmidecode 3.0 Handle 0x0005, DMI type 5, 24 bytes Memory Controller Information Error Detecting Method: None Error Correcting Capabilities: None Supported Interleave: One-way Interleave Current Interleave: One-way Interleave Maximum Memory Module Size: 8192 MB Maximum Total Memory Size: 32768 MB Supported Speeds: Other Supported Memory Types: Other Memory Module Voltage: Unknown Associated Memory Slots: 4 0x0006 0x0007 0x0008 0x0009 Enabled Error Correcting Capabilities: None Handle 0x0006, DMI type 6, 12 bytes Memory Module Information Socket Designation: DIMM0 Bank Connections: None Current Speed: Unknown Type: DIMM Installed Size: Not Installed Enabled Size: Not Installed Error Status: OK Handle 0x0007, DMI type 6, 12 bytes Memory Module Information Socket Designation: DIMM1 Bank Connections: None Current Speed: Unknown Type: DIMM Installed Size: Not Installed Enabled Size: Not Installed Error Status: OK Handle 0x0008, DMI type 6, 12 bytes Memory Module Information Socket Designation: DIMM2 Bank Connections: None Current Speed: Unknown Type: DIMM Installed Size: 4096 MB (Single-bank Connection) Enabled Size: 4096 MB (Single-bank Connection) Error Status: OK Handle 0x0009, DMI type 6, 12 bytes Memory Module Information Socket Designation: DIMM3 Bank Connections: None Current Speed: Unknown Type: DIMM Installed Size: Not Installed Enabled Size: Not Installed Error Status: OK So how many memory slot do I have?