What are your thoughts on BitTorent clients like Transmition? All I really want to know is if It is bad or can harm your mac in any way.
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BitTorrent, Good or Bad?
- Thread starter MacBoy108
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Definitely bad. BitTorrent will eat up all your free hard drive space like WHOA and cost you a lot of money building a RAID array. Advise to stay away.
Yeah, if you download craploads of porn.
It all depends on what you download. If all you get are 64kB text files, then it will only go through HD space like WHOA if you have a 5MB drive.
Here's my thoughts on Bittorrent
It's really good if you plan on downloading things like... well large files. Downloads are usually quick and relatively painless. Just keep in mind what you download so you don't fill up you're hard drive.
If you're afraid of the RIAA or something like that, Bittorent can get you sued... Or you can use Peerguardian or whatever. You can download a movie pretty quick using Bittorrent, but I don't think it would be wise when there are pretty cheap alternatives out there like Netflix.
One thing you should be careful about: I used to use my 12" powerbook to torrent. I didn't have a desktop so I didn't have much of a choice. Long story short my hard drive died real quick. Be careful because torrenting a lot may kill your hard drive faster.
It's really good if you plan on downloading things like... well large files. Downloads are usually quick and relatively painless. Just keep in mind what you download so you don't fill up you're hard drive.
If you're afraid of the RIAA or something like that, Bittorent can get you sued... Or you can use Peerguardian or whatever. You can download a movie pretty quick using Bittorrent, but I don't think it would be wise when there are pretty cheap alternatives out there like Netflix.
One thing you should be careful about: I used to use my 12" powerbook to torrent. I didn't have a desktop so I didn't have much of a choice. Long story short my hard drive died real quick. Be careful because torrenting a lot may kill your hard drive faster.
It can limit your Mac's lifespan as it constantly accesses your hard drive and cycles your CPU (amongst other components).
Operating a program like a Final cut or PS with low ram and in turn forcing "virtual memory"(or whatever the OSX equivalent is) can achieve the same thing just not as quickly. Using the HD wears it out.
Not really. This is why God provided the miracle of caching, which protects against hard drive thrashing when people are downloading immense numbers of torrents at once -- but the same thing happens when people are just running too damn many applications and they're swapping too hard.
It's not really a problem with the concept of BitTorrent, but a problem with people using ancient and feature-deprived clients while insisting on downloading forty DVD ISOs at one time on 128MB RAM
Little known fun fact: CPU's don't stop working after a specific number of operations.
I can understand worrying about your hard drive. After all, it stores your ****. But the rest of the computer is relatively unimportant in the long run. If you have a problem with heat while running BitTorrent, you'll have heat problems with damn near everything but TextEdit. I think that if you stress-test all the components of a computer, the first one to fail will inevitably be the optical drive -- and how often have you heard of people having to buy a new optical drive because the old one blew up from steady usage?
If your computer gets its ass kicked by Transmission, then it's about time you upgrade.
just leave your computer in the closet in the box only opening once a year to do your taxes and when your drive heads are fused at least you won't regret bittorrent damaging it.
I've been bittorrenting on my mac for over a year now, I even have one of those dodgey seagate drives and so far... no problems.
I've been bittorrenting on my mac for over a year now, I even have one of those dodgey seagate drives and so far... no problems.
Aye, Well Its hard for me to decide I have a powerful machine and backup and everything so I think the verdict for me might be downloading the occasional movie, but then you have to figure out what sites are being tracked and all that.
Roger that. Azureus causes my Mac mini physical pain.
I'd celebrate joyously if there were a native Cocoa port of Azureus.
Exactly!
Not really. This is why God provided the miracle of caching, which protects against hard drive thrashing when people are downloading immense numbers of torrents at once -- but the same thing happens when people are just running too damn many applications and they're swapping too hard.
It's not really a problem with the concept of BitTorrent, but a problem with people using ancient and feature-deprived clients while insisting on downloading forty DVD ISOs at one time on 128MB RAM
Even with caching, the drive is asked to spin up more often than if a torrent app wasn't running.
Not technically, but they are rated to a certain amount of cycles before they are expected to fail. As is the case with most components in a computer, the more you use it the closer it gets to the end of its life.
Now I think you're just making things up.
In response to the question "can bit torrent (apps) harm your Mac?", I believe the answer is yes. The degree to which this happens depends on the app you use, the machine you have and the amount of torrents you download. Sensible users can download torrents with no noticeable effect on their computer's lifespan.
Other apps may have similar effects, but that doesn't mean bit torrent apps don't harm a computer.
Hell, by wearing the Baggy Green, its gunna get worn out too.
*in memory of Steve Waugh's Baggy Green*
Nothing wrong with BitTorrent in of itself, it's just another way of transferring data from one end to another. Of course you can get "bad stuff" with it, but you can also get "bad stuff" from the usual way of downloading files from the Internet. "Bad stuff" can also be obtained through mail, TV, radio, etc. At the end of the day, BitTorrent is just another medium.
*sigh* the hard drive failures. My little sister has an emac that died because she torrented every night. My powerbook died from torrenting overnight. Just don't do it often, ya know?
Using torrent programs is good because it means you are most likely stealing content, which is, of course, good.
Seriously, I think what it comes down to is that torrent programs do result in your system being quite active but they are not unique in this respect - using large Photoshop files, rendering video in FCP Studio, etc. will all tax your system resources in one way or another.
The bottom line is, I bought my Mac to do stuff, and lots of it. I say don't worry about using a torrent app - that's just simply one of the applications your Mac can be used for - and was designed for nonetheless!
Not using an application like a torrent client for fear of wearing out the HDD, etc. is like buying a car but not driving it because every time you start it, it causes engine wear.
Seriously, I think what it comes down to is that torrent programs do result in your system being quite active but they are not unique in this respect - using large Photoshop files, rendering video in FCP Studio, etc. will all tax your system resources in one way or another.
The bottom line is, I bought my Mac to do stuff, and lots of it. I say don't worry about using a torrent app - that's just simply one of the applications your Mac can be used for - and was designed for nonetheless!
Not using an application like a torrent client for fear of wearing out the HDD, etc. is like buying a car but not driving it because every time you start it, it causes engine wear.