OT: Cluster size for audio/video data—still a thing?

[Dave Labrecque]

We used to format our audio hard drives to 64Kb clusters to maximize streaming throughput (and, therefore, track count) for our "big" audio files. What are people's practices in the SSD age?

Still a performance gain to be had? Still worth the extra space it takes?

[mr_es335]

Dave,

A good point is made here by Andrew, "Andrew expands upon Jonathan's answer with..."

For most purposes, stick with the 4096 default.

[Dave Labrecque]

Dave,

A good point is made here by Andrew, "Andrew expands upon Jonathan's answer with..."

For most purposes, stick with the 4096 default.

Thanks, Dell. I was hoping for something more audio/video specific, though.

[mr_es335]

Dave,

I truly believe that you should simply leave the cluster size "as is".

Let us see who else chimes-in...however.

[Dave Labrecque]

Really? No no one else wants to share their audio/video SSD cluster size thinking these days? I feel sad inside.

[cgrafx]

Really? No no one else wants to share their audio/video SSD cluster size thinking these days? I feel sad inside.

The default 4k cluster size should be left alone. There is no longer any need to mess with this.

[Dave Labrecque]

The default 4k cluster size should be left alone. There is no longer any need to mess with this.

Nice. Thanks, Philip.

The OCD part of me still wonders if bigger clusters would give better throughput for multitrack audio reading and writing, but the lazy part of me knows I'll never do the testing to find out.

A moot point in the 21st century, I reckon.

[mr_es335]

Dave,

Many, many years ago, I did extensive research into cluster sizes and such..and I believe that I may have that documentation.

However, many years later, as a result of how mechanical HDD's were then being developed...that the whole concept behind cluster sizes become moot and that the ability to make changes to such was left intact for those that may still want to make those changes.

Thus, for me and my house, we left all as is...and never felt a need to look back.

[Dave Labrecque]

Dave,

Many, many years ago, I did extensive research into cluster sizes and such..and I believe that I may have that documentation.

However, many years later, as a result of how mechanical HDD's were then being developed...that the whole concept behind cluster sizes become moot and that the ability to make changes to such was left intact for those that may still want to make those changes.

Thus, for me and my house, we left all as is...and never felt a need to look back.

Were you streaming audio with those custers back in the day, Dell? Do you remember if there was a performance boost early on (to larger clusters for audio data playback) that went away somewhere along the way? Or did overall HDD throughput advances simply make any such boost moot/unneeded?

[mr_es335]

Dave,

Too far back I am afraid!!

I do believe however that cluster size equated to format scheme and drive capacity.

See here: [click_me]