Files per directory

Hi,

Seeming as the list is teeming with activity at the moment, and no, 
in the UK we are not experiencing network issues, I thought I'd wade 
in.

I am trying to design a files system that is based around database 
records. Each record within the DB could have up to 9 files (possibly 
more). The best design I can come up with would mean that a directory 
would end up with 9,999 files in. 

Is that going to cause performance issues? The current file system 
ext3. Would anyone suggest a limit I should set for the maximum or 
say if they think 10K files is acceptable?

TIA,
Dp.