how would choice of hard disk partioning affect performance of Mandriva
 

I am rather confused over this hard disk partioning thingy. Everyone has different opinion on it. Just to name a few:
1) Have a small /boot, or a huge one; is there a need for this in the first place!
2) swap should be x2 size of RAM; too large a swap can cause system to slow down(?)
3) the order of disk partioning is important (e.g. in this order /boot, swap, /)
4) Have a small /, or a huge one

Thus, what actually determines a good size of disk partioning? What is the rationale? "Best practice?" Can someone offer some logical explanation for this?

Many thanks in advance! : )

I'd be willing to bet that you could set up a system using any of these rules and you would never see the difference in real-life operation.

Probably true. I would note though that as most (supplied/system) progs tend to log to the /var dir, it's a good idea to put this on its own partition in case of runaway process ie disk full ..
Also, on a modern box, swap = 1 x RAM is prob enough.... given cheap disks these days, I'd prob just go for 1GB for swap, regardless.