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About the noise, I think the most important factor is to give it time.
(this image got 4 days on a dual 3GHz)
And secondly, my experience until now is that the 'browny' background colors give a good result concerning the noise. I found out by experimenting with it. I allways have lots of noise with white and black background-colors.
And I also use rectangulare shapes for lighting. I also experimented with other shapes like spheres but it takes more time to get rid of the noise.
But offcourse, I think the scene itself is mostly responsible for what shape is best suitable for lighting.