Having been there (and got the T-shirts) a couple of times, I agree with all the above posts ...

You will certainly notice a massive speed improvement, especially if you have...

Phil, George ...

Thanks for your responses ... much apreciated ... clarification of the points you mention:

1) The creation/dropping of tables, indexs, etc does not necessarily apply to the same...

seem to remember something about verticalization - maybe this is what you are looking for ...