Genny, I zipped up the .mb file and a link is at bottom of this reply for you to grab, many thanks in advance for taking a look at it, and any recommendations you have about the preferences are truly appreciated.

ctbram, is not an animation, just rendering a still image.
I understand about the cpu thread usage, and that usage looks OK
I purchased the Quadro 2000D because the D series was supposedly optimized for 3D modeling performance.
There is no SLI for these cards, have 1 monitor connected to each card,
and honestly only expecting Maya to make use of the 1 card the main monitor is on.
Maybe my expectations for this card is beyond it's capabilities, but I think something else is wrong here (like my settings).
Even if issue is re:disk write speed, hell it's a Sata III SSD disk with plenty of space, and I would think render time should've been cut in half at minimum.

link to scene file for anyone wanting to take a look:
https://cozmos.net/filez/comp_desk10.zip
If it makes a difference, you'll see a camera called desk_cam, that is the view I use when doing the rendering.

I've also added the area lights with linear decay to the monitors, per your earlier recommendations when I posted the project in the WIP section.

thanks for the replies, and any recommendations

J.B