I had swap on microSD and I definitely noticed a difference when the card crapped out on me Luckily I managed to fix it by booting to a console in BootMenu. I thoroughly recommend installing BootMenu first if you embark on low-level stuff like that. (Admittedly, using another card partitioned the same way would do just as well but I did not have one at hand right then.)

Edit. I've placed a bid too. I do not expect to win it but I thought I'd get the ball rolling. I feel rather flattered by the fact that postage to the UK is lower than anywhere else - including your own country