Optimizing file system for lots of small files?

Question

I have a drive containing 122,865 image files that are about 82.1 GB total. However they use 171 GB of space on disk. The average file size is about 717KB. Since I intend to continue adding more files of this size I would like to reformat my drive with a new file system or alter the existing one to better accommodate these small files. The drive is currently running ext4 with the defaults provided by ArchLinux's mkfs.ext4. I am not the slightest bit certain on where to begin with solving this, can anyone point me in the right direction or provide some resources for me to work with.

Answer 1

The smaller the block size (1024 bytes, p.e.), the better for efficient disk usage, in case there's a lot of small files on that partition. Try to reformat that partition with the smallest block size:

mkfs.ext4 -b 1024 /dev/your_partition

Answer 2

Some time ago it was very common to use ReiserFS for that type of cases. I have no experience with it but I know that :)