At the Institute, our main machine named 'Big Mo' ran for almost 18 in one day. This isn't unusual in the midst of a big job. Spend the extra money. The extra capability will pay for itself quickly in the long run. The item you will run out of first is storage space.
Government databases are large, sometimes even immense.
Health Care Finance Administration spans some 30 9-track tapes. Every time you can't fit a whole database on your hard drive, you greatly add to your work. If you have to split up a database into two pieces, you almost double your work. Buy hard drive space until it hurts. Remember that you need 300 to 500 mb for programs and because relational database programs make temporary back-up files, you need twice the space of the largest database you expect to work with.