@javajosh, I believe that a PATA is the same as an IDE drive, I have an HP ZD8000 laptop (my main system) with a 3.6ghz processor and 2gb RAM (this thing is a monster work horse, 17in etc, but it weighs a ton, almost 10lbs) and it also uses an IDE/PATA drive, the largest I can find for it is a WD 320gb because the manufactures are not developing new IDE drives any longer (at least for 2.5 drives which is what laptops and Minis use) so my only choice is an external drive and with an external I can get like 3 terabytes but I really prefer internal drives, 1st of all they are faster as where I cant use the new 3.0 USB speed because this laptop has got 5 usb's on it but they are all 2.0, my 2 servers are just for storage (about 4 terabyte total)
BTW: yes I do have a WD 750gb SATA drive in my Mini 10, and I have also wanted a 1 terabyte drive but WD (Western Digital) 1 terabyte drives are 12.5mm thick where the Mini can only house a 9.5mm thick drive, BUT recently WD has introduced a NEW 1 terabyte drive which IS 9.5mm and will fit perfectly into my Mini 10, I am upgrading to this 1 terabyte drive in the near future (Newegg has it for about $100-$120 USD), so after all is said and done I will have a 1 terabyte Mini with a rare 2GB of RAM and a Mini that is maxed out with every option Dell has for it (6 cell battery,TV Tuner,bluetooth, HD 1366x768 screen,wireless b/g/n...etc) all in about 2lbs which I think is awesome.....Good Luck
PS. Check in to the new Dell XPS 10 or Dell XPS 12, they look very awesome, just not too sure about the ARM processor in them, but look like very cool tablet/laptops.....they have a removable touch screen which instantly turns them in to a tablet and reportedly runs for about 20hrs on a single charge (with a 2nd battery installed in it)
Review:
http://www.slashgear.com/dell-xps-10...on-3-31245424/