New to the forums! Need a little help if you don't mind

I guess I'll start things off by saying I'm new and hello! There are a tonne of questions I have but how now i'll stick to this. (Hopefully I'm in the right place)

Currently I have FCP7 on my computer, however the render times are taking quite a bit of time. I use the Red Giant filters on them as well and sometimes I'm stuck waiting 4-5 minutes for the clip to render when its only a short 10-20 sec clip.

I run a 2009 iMac and the specs are:

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

If there are any tips or trick that could help me with the render times that would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help!

The Red Giant looks are a heavy load for the computer. Maybe it helps to first edit your whole project with effects turned off and then in a final step apply the filters and have your machine render overnight?