Comment Re: Something something online sorting (Score 1) 241
If the database fits into that amount of RAM, then wouldn't that mean I/O is not a limiting factor?
Depends on whether you still need the database around if the power ever goes off.
In some applications the DBs are just read-only or temporary and you copy/build them from permanent storage so it doesn't matter.
But in many other DB applications you do need to write and it needs to actually be permanently written (within monetary and physical constraints). And it often has to be written when you tell the user it's written. Bad stuff happens if you tell the users/customers "transaction succeeded", delay writing the transactions till later but then the power/battery fails and there's completely no record for thousands of transactions.