Thanks for your answer, also thank you Adam!

I'll try to give you the missing pieces.

> > 1) Does the query speed depend on the number of rows in a table?

> Does you query specify criteria where all the columns are indexed?

Yes

> How specific is the value being searched for?

Very specific, I'm querying on the primary key, so the result would
always contain one row.

> Does the query need to evaluate across indexes?

No

> > 3) OK, I know this is a vague question.
> > On a "normal" desktop computer say 2MHz and 2GB RAM or something like
> > it. How many simple queries (like select * from table) can I make in a
> > second. Is it in the 100's, 1000's etc.?

> Simple queries like that are no measure of anything in real life!
> How many columns are there? How big are the records?
>
> Is the HD: IDE, SATA 1.5Gbps, SATA 3.0Gbps, SCSI, SAS 10K or SAS 15K?
>
> Is there a RAID controller? Does the RAID controller have cache?
>
> Is the PC running Windows or Linux? What is the file system of the
> drive/device that the database is stored on?

Windows, IDE HD, no raid, and of course not 2MHZ CPU ;-)

I'm not expecting an exact answer, I'm just trying to get a little
feeling with how the DB would perform.
Which would guide me when deciding if I should try optimize my design
to use fewer queries, but giving a bit messier table design.

I will do the same query as described previously, querying on PK and
only getting one row in return.

Thank you very much again