What sort of computer specs (CPU, RAM, disk speed) should I use for running queries on a database of 200+ million records? The queries are for a research project, so there is only one "user" and only one query will be running at a time. I tried it on my own laptop with SQL Server with an i3 processor, 2GB RAM, 5400 RPM disk and a simple query didn't finish even after 8+ hours. I have an option to connect a SSD via eSata and upgrade to 4GB RAM, but not sure if this will be enough... Thanks! Edit: The database is about 25 GB and the indexes are not setup properly. When I tried to add an index, I let it run for about 8 hours and it still hadn't finished so I gave up. Should I have more patience :)? In general, the queries will run once in a while and its ok even if it takes a couple hours to complete.... Also, the queries will produce probably about 10 million records which I need to process using Stata/Matlab and I'm concerned that my current laptop is not strong enough, but unsure of the bottleneck....