Speed Up Your SQL Inserts : Page 4

Some Limitations

The 8,000-byte limit to the length of a varchar variable produces another inconvenience. However, you can solve that problem by storing incoming strings in a separate table and running another process that checks for the completed sets of the strings that belong to the same survey and user submission. Then you can insert such a set into the working table asynchronously.

In SS2005, where the varchar(max) data type can store up to 2 GB, you have much more flexibility. You can adjust the length of the string to any size up to 2 GB and try to get the optimal performance of the string inserts.

One last note: validate data in the body of your stored procedures. Although it will make your stored procedures heavier, your string inserts still will be much faster than repetitive one-row inserts.