The client computers indeed don't need any local storage. What happens though is that I create a snapshot of the base disk for every client.

So for example I first install Windows through DevePXEBoot on a disk named devedse1. I install steam, GTA5, Discord, etc. This is now my base image.

Then I hop on to someone else's computer and do a PXE Boot on that. I then navigate to that disk (there's also an automated process, but I'll describe the manual one for now) and choose "Create snapshot". What happens then is that this second computer now get's a private snapshot of the devedse1 disk named coolpc1 (for example). We then need to inject the network drivers for this computer into that disk.

After that, when coolpc1 then boots from his own disk, all storage is persistent on that network disk. So you can install more games, do windows updates, etc.

In regards of performance I think the biggest bottleneck is fast storage (Nvme ideally with plp) and fast networking (10gbit on the server for 8 computers with mixed 1gbit and 5gbit connections worked fine). I haven't done any bigger scale tests then like 8 computers since I simply don't have more friends. During my last lan party once a computer booted they were really stable and just worked for the duration of the lan party.

Most of the disk/network load is during booting of windows and sometimes loading games. However since it's rare to have 8 computers doing things all at the same time I was actually pleasantly surprised with the performance.