Do everything the previous poster said. If you're still getting the error, post the full error, not "something like this" because that's really hard to narrow down.

Start by succinctly explaining the problem you're trying to solve. Absolutely show hard number examples. Be very careful of using technical jargon, these aren't tslq coders, they're managers. Focus on...

Another vote for Itzik's books. Absolute must reads. Kalen Delaney's book on internals is a must read.

I've heard that Kalen's book on performance and troubleshooting is good but I haven't...

I'm flummoxed.

When I said recompiles, I did mean recompiles caused by the code, not a recompile that you ran. Do you have anying in the code that would cause the...

Duly chastised and I've proven my lack of reading ability, yet again.

Part of the problem is returning 1 million rows. Does the user need a million rows? Are they really using a million rows? Are they going to look at 1...

Whoa! What a mess. So, in short, FIRST() functions in a fashion somewhat, but not entirely, similar to TOP(1)?

What everyone else said is very correct. Multiple disks with multiple files and file groups is the way to go.

The one thing I would add is that I've read (can't...

Looking at the execution plan, I'd try creating a second index, just on fk_tbl_visits_id. There's no guarantee it's going to work. 1m rows out 60m has a .0167 ratio, which...

Purist anything in databases is usually a sign for disaster. There are places where an identity column as a PK and as FK's in all the related tables not only...

When you ran the trace did you also see two different times on the server? I understand the client saw two times, but was it the same on the server?

Oh,...

Should you "have to" do extra work? No. Are you going to in most situations. Yes.

It's kind of the nature of the beast. If you have tasks that have to...

While that may be true, SQL Server is not Access. There's no way to ensure physical order of the data returned without applying some type of order to the statement....

Are you seeing two different execution plans too?

FWIW, SQL Server 2008 has the same stupid problem.