HDD allocation unit size

[SMOKEU]

I've got 2X WD Black 1TB HDDs in RAID 0 in a USB 3 external HDD enclosure. I will have my OS and my "day to day" files on my SSD.

The RAID 0 volume will be just for installing large games (modern AAA titles often 50GB+ in size) as well as music, movies, pics etc. What's the best allocation unit size for this case? I don't plan on putting many small files in there unless the games contain them.

I don't mind losing a little space for the extra performance.

 

[HankB]

Is the default the same as the reported sector size for the drive? That is most likely 512, but the drive may be lying. The newer 'super size' drives ('super size is a term I just made up ) use larger physical sectors but may report 512 to avoid confusing older software. I'm not sure if this uses larger physical sectors but the data sheet for the drive (https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc/website/downloadable_assets/eng/spec_data_sheet/2879-771435.pdf) also lists a bunch of smaller drives so it argues against that.

Why not try different allocation sizes, copying large files to and from the RAID? Synthetic benchmarks will provide a theoretical comparison but if you can detect a difference with your actual usage, that's what matters. Is it a big burden to install/play/uninstall a game or two a couple times to get a feel for this? With the media content, you will only pay the price for writing once and playback will be good enough, regardless.

 

[||Console||]

I've got 2X WD Black 1TB HDDs in RAID 0 in a USB 3 external HDD enclosure. I will have my OS and my "day to day" files on my SSD.

The RAID 0 volume will be just for installing large games (modern AAA titles often 50GB+ in size) as well as music, movies, pics etc. What's the best allocation unit size for this case? I don't plan on putting many small files in there unless the games contain them.

I don't mind losing a little space for the extra performance.

Going through usb 3 is going to be the limiting factor in this setup IMO I doubt the allocation size will be making a big difference .

 

[Woomack]

New HDD usually have 4k, older and smaller drives have 512 ... it's safe to set default while formatting so it checks device specs. New drives at 4k usually perform a bit better but really it doesn't matter much.

 

[Kenrou]

If we’re talking spinners anything below 4K will make a noticeable performance dent ? Don’t know if it applies to SSD’s though.

 

[Woomack]

HDD are slow anyway so it doesn't matter ... general rule is that when drive has default size of 512b then you set 512b and when it has 4k then you set 4k. It doesn't mean that performance will be much different.