How to choose download software? For this question, every user will have their own answer. Personal habits, preferences for software interfaces, program stability, and management functions after downloading can all be reasons for users to choose or not choose a particular software. However, as a hard indicator, speed has always been a concern for users when it comes to download software. In many IT forums, the debate over which major download software is faster or slower has always been a focal point for download enthusiasts.
Recently, two giants in the download software industry, FlashGet and Xunlei, have each been updated. Although the rumored official version 2.0 of FlashGet and version 6.0 of Xunlei did not appear, the frequent updates of older versions have given us a glimpse into many features of the new versions. So, who is faster between them, and how big is the gap? Let's do a test to find out.
Test Environment:
CPU: Pentium M 1.6G
Memory: 256MB
Network: Netcom ADSL 512K
System: Windows XP SP2
Many tests use machines with the latest configurations, but these results are often far removed from the average user and thus lack practical value. Therefore, we specifically conducted this test on a low-end laptop used by our editors, hoping to obtain a relatively reliable result.
Software Under Review:
Software Name: FlashGet (Fast Car)
Version Information: Beta 2.0 Beta 6
Software Size: 6.39M
Language: Chinese
Download Address: Available Here
Software Name: Thunder (Xunlei)
Version Information: 5.7.7.441
Software Size: 7.38M
Language: Chinese
Download Address: Available Here
Humanization Showdown
First Round: Humanization
Nowadays, whether it's IT products or network services, humanization is being advocated. No matter how powerful a software's performance may be, if it's filled with too many ads or even bundled with rogue plugins, it will eventually be rejected by users. Therefore, we first evaluate the pros and cons of these two software programs starting with humanization.
Installation:
FlashGet bundles the Google Toolbar, while Xunlei bundles its own Dogdog Movies and Xunlei Kankan. It seems that Xunlei has invested a lot of money in copyright recently, so they are promoting free movies vigorously.
Both installations are default and non-forced, giving FlashGet a slight edge in this round, 1:2 over Xunlei.
Interface Comparison:
Program Interface:
The most annoying thing about free software is advertising, and the least humanized aspect is also advertising. In the simplest window, Xunlei still strongly promotes its "authentic" movie resources, while FlashGet remains more restrained with a cleaner interface.
In other details, Xunlei forcibly modifies all default download settings on the editor's computer during installation, which is quite unpleasant. Also, the resource recommendation pop-up window mimicking Tencent is equally disliked.
Therefore, in the first round, FlashGet takes the lead!
Resource Consumption Comparison
Second Round: Resource Consumption
Next up is the comparison of resource consumption. Although hardware performance continues to improve, only software that does its homework well in this area can allow users to enjoy other services while downloading!
Idle Resource Consumption Comparison:
Due to both software loading ad systems, their memory and CPU usage without downloading is less than ideal, although FlashGet performs slightly better.
Resource Consumption During Download:
To ensure relatively accurate system resource consumption data, we downloaded the same file size of 432M using both software, specifically the Kingsoft Dictionary 2007 trial package. The screenshot timing was five minutes after the download started.
Results obtained:
Thunder resource consumption during download
FlashGet resource consumption during download
From the above comparison, it can be seen that FlashGet's resource consumption is quite satisfactory in this round. Under the premise that the download speeds of the two are similar, FlashGet consumes less than half the system memory of Thunder.