will 64kb clusters give better playback then 4kb clusters?

[Shadowmeph]

I have been asking around different websites reading and asking for advice about building HTPC and at one website some one said that I should do this

at least a 750gb formatted NTFS and using the 64kb clusters (not the default 4kb) The 64kb clusters will give better playback of video files. My HTPC has 4 hard drives (1 bootdrive, 3 storage drives). Make sure all the hard drives have fans blowing on them.

no I am not very familiar at how a hard drive actually works but will there be any significant difference buy doing this?

[lowfat]

Sounds pretty silly to me. An HDD is never going to be the bottleneck for watching videos. No matter the cluster size.

[Jake_HT]

Originally Posted by lowfat

Sounds pretty silly to me. An HDD is never going to be the bottleneck for watching videos. No matter the cluster size.

Exactly.

[gingerbee]

I didn't think it matter at all.

[zoob]

Might be better for recording (writing to the disk), but not playback...

[Shadowmeph]

I thought that but Like I said I have know real knowledge of how hard drives work lol
thank you for the info

[Squeetard]

When your drive gets fragmented it will make a difference. Read 4kb block, move read 4kb block, move. Read 64kb, move, read etc...

[DaleF]

Easy fix, use a filesystem that doesn't fragment that easily.

As for NTFS cluster sizes, the only time I can see it becoming an issue with playback of video files is if you're playing back files with a high bitrate and you need to move data off of the drive fast. In that case, I think RAID0 would help things even more.

[gingerbee]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

When your drive gets fragmented it will make a difference. Read 4kb block, move read 4kb block, move. Read 64kb, move, read etc...

yes we all no the facts i think what he's asking will you be able to see a difference in it's use. not all all on htpc they tend to only do 1 thing at a time.jmo

[TopDogZero]

NTFS file system will defrag in background in Vista or if you don't like Vista's defrag utility or if you have XP then run something like IoBit SmartDefrag set it and forget it (sounds like that infomercial ) and it's free .