diff --git a/hosts/skydick/DATAPOOL.md b/hosts/skydick/DATAPOOL.md
index dfe1b15..508f33a 100644
--- a/hosts/skydick/DATAPOOL.md
+++ b/hosts/skydick/DATAPOOL.md
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 Network: 10GbE bonded (bond0), jumbo frames MTU 9000, subnet 10.0.0.0/16.
 
 Pool: 10 × Seagate Exos/Mach2 ST14000NM0001 14TB SAS (4Kn), each presenting 2 LUNs.
-8 mirrors (from 8 drives) + 2 hot spares + NVMe SLOG/L2ARC. ~50.9T usable.
+8 mirrors (from 8 drives) + 2 hot spares + 2 × Intel DC P4600 Optane 750GB. ~50.9T usable.
+NVMe tier: mirrored 690G special vdev (metadata + small blocks ≤128K) + mirrored 8G SLOG.
 See `datapool.nix` header comments for the full drive inventory and mirror layout.
 
 ## Available shares
diff --git a/hosts/skydick/datapool.nix b/hosts/skydick/datapool.nix
index 13bbb5d..6f68cfb 100644
--- a/hosts/skydick/datapool.nix
+++ b/hosts/skydick/datapool.nix
@@ -63,17 +63,32 @@
 #   zpool add dick \
 #     spare wwn-0x6000c500c9bcfa0f0000000000000000 wwn-0x6000c500c9bcfa0f0001000000000000
 #
-# === NVMe acceleration (Intel DC P4600 750GB, PHKE0163008K750BGN) ===
+# === NVMe acceleration (2 × Intel DC P4600 750GB, Optane) ===
 #
-#   Partition:
-#     sgdisk -Z /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN
-#     sgdisk -n 1:0:+8G -t 1:bf01 /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN
-#     sgdisk -n 2:0:0   -t 2:bf01 /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN
+#   nvme0: PHKE0163008K750BGN (SSDPE21K750GAC) — 4Kn native
+#   nvme1: PHKE8136008M750BGN (SSDPE21K750GA)  — 4Kn (nvme format --lbaf=3)
 #
-#   Add to pool:
+#   Partition layout (both drives identical, 4096-byte sectors):
+#     sfdisk /dev/nvmeXn1 <<EOF
+#     label: gpt
+#     /dev/nvmeXn1p1 : size=2097152, type=6A898CC3-1DD2-11B2-99A6-080020736631, name="slog"
+#     /dev/nvmeXn1p2 : type=6A898CC3-1DD2-11B2-99A6-080020736631, name="special"
+#     EOF
+#     → part1: 8G (SLOG), part2: 690G (special vdev)
+#
+#   Add to pool (mirrored SLOG + mirrored special vdev, 2026-04-01):
 #     zpool add dick \
-#       log nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN-part1 \
-#       cache nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN-part2
+#       log mirror \
+#         nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN-part1 \
+#         nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GA_PHKE8136008M750BGN-part1 \
+#       special mirror \
+#         nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GAC_PHKE0163008K750BGN-part2 \
+#         nvme-INTEL_SSDPE21K750GA_PHKE8136008M750BGN-part2
+#
+#   special_small_blocks=128K on the pool root — metadata + files ≤128K
+#   (subtitles, NFO, thumbnails, .torrent, directory entries) are stored
+#   on NVMe instead of spinning rust.  This is the single biggest
+#   performance lever for an HDD pool with NFS/SMB workloads.
 #
 # === Dataset hierarchy ===
 #
@@ -319,6 +334,11 @@
       # Setting the root keeps read-heavy SMB/NFS trees from generating atime
       # metadata writes without having to stamp every descendant explicitly.
       ${pkgs.zfs}/bin/zfs set atime=off dick
+
+      # Route metadata + small blocks (≤128K) to the mirrored NVMe special
+      # vdev. Subtitles, NFO, thumbnails, directory entries, and small config
+      # files all land on Optane instead of spinning rust.
+      ${pkgs.zfs}/bin/zfs set special_small_blocks=128K dick
     '';
   };