Now that BitTorrent has gone all sensible and started charging for licensed downloads, free torrent clients are
likely to experience a surge in usage. uTorrent and BitComet
are two of the most popular torrent apps around, allowing you download
audio, video and software at high speeds through torrents, downloading
a file in pieces rather than from one source in order to speed up
transfer times.
uTorrent (also written as ‘µTorrent’) has
quickly become a favorite among torrent users worldwide thanks to an
innovative interface, minute CPU usage and extensive download details.
The program is undoubtedly one of the most reliable torrent clients on
the market, thanks to an ultra quick installation process and a minimal
use of PC resources. You can have a good number of torrents downloading
and still be able to use your PC without suffering any lags.
uTorrent makes it easy for you to look for new downloads without
opening up your browser. You can search the main torrent sites by
typing the name of the file you are looking for in the box on the top
right corner of the interface. uTorrent also includes an RSS downloader
to receive feeds of your favourite torrent sites. This little feature
is great for checking out all the new torrents in one click.
And
in the blue corner – BitComet, an application that prides itself on its
wide array of features for managing your torrents…. As opposed to the
rather sparse uTorrent interface, the glitzy BitComet swings in with
all manner of flashy icons and a a multitude of options that give you
more control over your downloads. For those who want a no-fuss client,
the extra features may simply get in the way.
Once a torrent is selected for download with BitComet, a dialog pops
up allowing you to determine the location to save to and select exactly
which files in the torrent you want. Once downloading, the regular
stop, pause, cancel, update etc options are all available plus a handy
“remove torrent & all files” option which removes all trace of an
unwanted torrent from your PC. Many users report the download rates are
good although note no particular difference with other clients’ speeds.
The best feature however is a ‘preview media’ option, which forces the
torrent to download sequentially instead of randomly thus allowing you
to preview any multimedia downloads. It’s a great way to avoid broken
links, but, on the downside, it will slow down your download
considerably.
Another interesting feature is the ‘intelligent disk cache’ which
really comes into its own on high-speed connections. If you are lucky
enough to get download transfer rates of 500 kb/s or higher, activating
it allows BitComet to cache the data to access the disk less
frequently. The result of this is that it doesn’t slow down your PC as
receiving large amounts of data can sometimes do. This generally helps
to make transfer speeds a little quicker than uTorrent.
Both apps are very accomplished in their own right and it’s worth
giving each of them a shot, but from my point of view, uTorrent wins
every time. uTorrent’s small footprint means it won’t strangle your
system’s resources like ts rivalt can, and the program is free of the
adware that blights BitComet. Although download speeds can be
marginally quicker in BitComet, it overdoes things in terms of features
and extras that aren’t really needed by most torrent users, making it
much more cumbersome overall.
