if you are just syncing with p2p node option set on, or even a witness, it should sync in about 2 days from scratch, and replay in 8-10 hours on a reasonably fast computer (at least 12gb memory).

also, all this problems the exchanges have with steemd - I could be wrong, but I believe that for simply executing trades and reading balances only the witness plugin is needed.

wait, how big has the block_log got now? Two weeks ago it was at 23gb. To be honest, I don't even want to know, really. I just know the abject lack of any real measures to stop spammy transactions is gonna take the whole network down pretty soon, within 3 months I reckon. When a machine like your laptop can't sync p2p on even a 100mbit connection within 3 days there could be a problem...

I wonder how bad it has to get before they realise they are gonna have to reset the chain?