diff --git a/model/message.go b/model/message.go
index 1d62c7c..dd5e5fb 100644
--- a/model/message.go
+++ b/model/message.go
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ type Message struct {
 	Flags uint64
 }
 
-// MessageBaseSize is a rough estimate of the base number of bytes the struct uses before strings are populated
-const MessageBaseSize = 104
+// MessageBaseSize 2021.06 byte size of an *empty* message json serialized
+const MessageBaseSize float64 = 463
 
 func compareSignatures(a []byte, b []byte) bool {
 	if len(a) != len(b) {
diff --git a/storage/v0/stream_store.go b/storage/v0/stream_store.go
index a3c2da5..22bf385 100644
--- a/storage/v0/stream_store.go
+++ b/storage/v0/stream_store.go
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ func (ss *streamStore) initBuffer() {
 
 func (ss *streamStore) updateBuffer(m model.Message) {
 	ss.messages = append(ss.messages, m)
-	ss.bufferByteCount += (model.MessageBaseSize * 1.5) + len(m.Message)
+	ss.bufferByteCount += (104 * 1.5) + len(m.Message)
 }
 
 func (ss *streamStore) updateFile() error {
diff --git a/storage/v1/stream_store.go b/storage/v1/stream_store.go
index a160e23..8801676 100644
--- a/storage/v1/stream_store.go
+++ b/storage/v1/stream_store.go
@@ -6,14 +6,19 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"git.openprivacy.ca/openprivacy/log"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"math"
 	"os"
 	"path"
 	"sync"
 )
 
+// This number is larger that the recommend chunk size of libsodium secretbox by an order of magnitude.
+// Since this code is not performance-sensitive (and is unlikely to gain any significant performance benefit from
+// cache-efficient chunking) this size isn’t currently a concern.
+// TODO: revise and evaluate better storage options after beta”
 const (
-	fileStorePartitions = 16
-	bytesPerFile        = 15 * 1024
+	fileStorePartitions = 128
+	bytesPerFile        = 128 * 1024
 )
 
 // streamStore is a file-backed implementation of StreamStore using an in memory buffer of ~16KB and a rotating set of files
@@ -73,7 +78,7 @@ func (ss *streamStore) initBufferFromStorage() error {
 
 func (ss *streamStore) updateBuffer(m model.Message) {
 	ss.messages = append(ss.messages, m)
-	ss.bufferByteCount += (model.MessageBaseSize * 1.5) + len(m.Message)
+	ss.bufferByteCount += int(math.Ceil(model.MessageBaseSize*1.5)) + len(m.Message)
 }
 
 func (ss *streamStore) updateFile() error {