It is possible to specify the size of the block buffers for an individual key cache using the key_cache_block_size variable. This permits tuning of the performance of I/O operations for index files.

The best performance for I/O operations is achieved when the size of read buffers is equal to the size of the native operating system I/O buffers. But setting the size of key nodes equal to the size of the I/O buffer does not always ensure the best overall performance. When reading the big leaf nodes, the server pulls in a lot of unnecessary data, effectively preventing reading other leaf nodes.

To control the size of blocks in the .MYI index file of MyISAM tables, use the --myisam-block-size option at server startup.