Raspberry Pi's are pretty sweet, inexpensive (I spent about $160 AUD on the Pi B+, a case, heatsinks, 8GB micro SD, and 1.5 TB WD HDD) with intention to configure and run it as an 'always on' torrent downloading machine.
Initially the configuration was pretty annoying, I did a bit right after having it delivered then waited till the weekend and I could drink a few .... so I was less aware of how much time I was putting into it.
Basically it involved installing the OS Raspbian on the micro SD, then running it in the Pi and connecting it to my network etc, then configuring a few things for file access over the network, installing FTP on the Pi and my PC, installing Bit torrent, I then chose to encrypt bittorrent traffic, plus setting up a 'remote desktop' kinda service to remote to the Pi from my PC.
The Pi just sits at the back of my desk and downloads to the external HDD. I remote to it from my PC and transfer data to my NAS (mainly) or other storage (on PC).
I love it!
Used to have an older (2009 model cheap dual core pentium) laptop with W7 for the same purpose, that was good but I wanted to reduce space and electricity usage ... plus make some money from the laptop. So sold it (for more than what it was worth) and got the Pi etc and pretty happy with how it worked out.