I got a new external crucial X8 usb 3.0 ssd and it reports a very large blocksize.
Unfortunately, it seems to make playing videos over the network with samba have problems. It may also be suboptimal using it on a usb 2.0 port.
blockdev --report
shows most drives have 256 sector readahead
RO RA SSZ BSZ StartSec Size Device
ro 256 512 1024 0 205111296 /dev/loop0
ro 256 512 1024 0 204873728 /dev/loop1
ro 256 512 1024 0 4096 /dev/loop2
ro 256 512 1024 0 157855744 /dev/loop3
however, my crucial ssd gets a giant 131072 readahead value. I believe this is what's causing the problems with the network drive sharing.
sudo blockdev --setra 16384 /dev/sdb
sets it to a much better value and I don't see the audio dropouts.
You can also check the value by getting the readahead for a specific drive.
blockdev --getra /dev/sdb
Cisco Catalyst C9300-24UX-A 24 Port 10G/mGig Copper UPOE Network Switch
$499.00
Cisco Catalyst C9300-24UX-A 24 Port 10G/mGig UPOE Network Switch, no module
$279.97
Cisco WS-C2960X-48FPD-L 48 V07 POE+ GE+2 10G SFP+, LAN BASE 740W w/ C2960X-Stack
$140.00
Cisco Nexus N9K-C93108TC-EX 48-Port 10G RJ-45 6x100G QSFP Network Switch W/Ears
$499.99
Cisco C3850-NM-2-10G 2 Port Network Exp.Module for 3850
$30.99
Cisco SFP-10G-SR 10-2415-03 10 Gigabit Transceiver LOT OF 10 @ C
$39.99
Cisco C3850-NM-4-10G 4 Port Network Exp.Module for 3850
$124.90
Genuine Cisco SFP-10G-SR V03 10GBASE-SR SFP+ Transceiver Module 10-2415-03
$8.00
Cisco AIR-CT3504-K9 Wireless Controller No AC Adapter 15-4
$299.99
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9372TX 48P 10G Gigabit Ethernet 6x QSFP+ 40G Switch 2x650W PSU
$199.99