hello

i'm currently reworking a terminology database application for my
college degree which - if i get it all well done - is going to be used
*in real life* by my professor and I'm currently having a speed issue:
he is probably going to complain about query execution time given the
fact that
1st) i did some serious database restructuring (the original database
had only one table)
2nd) i am using firebird as a potentially remote host as opposed to a
local bde+paradox database

i generated a random database with some 300000 entries in the main
table and had to find that normal queries (like select * from table
where value = 'abc') take a couple seconds and that the more complex
ones can take like five minutes to execute as opposed to the current
version of the application where everything happens within a fraction
of a second..now i was wondering how much faster a serious database
server machine would do; if i told him the problem could be fixed with
an investment of a couple grand in a state-of-the-art backend server
with fast hd's and stuff that sure wouldn't be a problem as it would
have a business purpose but i sure wouldn't want to recommend him to
waste his money on a high speed machine that instead of a
5-minutes-query-execution time has one of 3,5 minutes..how many times
faster can a serious server be in comparation to my off-the-shelf 500
quid desktop pc?

thanx,

martin