[K12OSN] How many clients on server with one PATA disk?

[Petre Scheie]

How many clients are people supporting with a server with a single PATA (IDE--the kind 
with the wide ribbon cable) drive?  As alluded to yesterday, I'm having trouble getting 
an HP Pavillion with a SATA drive to boot, although install and rescue mode both work 
fine.  One option we're considering is using a PATA disk.  There *used* to be a problem 
with PATA/IDE disks if you had more than 10 clients, but that was some years ago, and in 
the mean time, IDE disks have gotten faster, bigger caches, and I suspect that the spec 
has improved also, such that the 10-client limit may not apply so much any more.  So, 
I'm wondering how many clients people are able to satisfactorily support on a box with a 
single PATA IDE drive (don't worry about the RAM).

Petre