Should I use flat tables or a normalized database?

Question

I have a web application that I am currently working on that uses a MySQL database for the back-end, and I need to know what is better for my situation before I continue any fur

Answer 1

Keep your data normalized. The system will should stay fast provided you have proper indexing.

If you really want to go fast then switch the schema to one of the key value databases like bigDB /couchDB etc. That is totally denormalized and very very fast.