When taking a database from a relatively un-normalized form and normalizing it, what, if any, changes in resource utilization might one expect?
For example,
Normalized schemas tend to perform better for INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE because there are no "update anomalies" and the actual changes that need to be made are more localized.
SELECTs are mixed. Denormalization is esentially materializing a join. There's no doubt that materializing a join sometimes helps, however, materialization is often very pessimistic (probably more often than not), so don't assume that denormalization will help you. Also, normalized schemas are generally smaller and therefore might require less I/O. A join is not necessarily expensive, so don't automatically assume that it will be.