Well, today when I was using my mac, I needed a good utility to Un-RAR some files that I downloaded. Here, I have listed my 5 most favorite un-rarers. To test the power of these programs, I timed the extraction of a 545.5MB Windows XP installation image, which was placed in a RAR. All tests were done on my 2.0GHz Aluminum Unibody Macbook.

5. Jomic

Test Time: 0:37

Jomic is a comic book reader. However, it allows you to extract files from an RAR, and it is quite speedy at it for something it wasn’t designed to do.

4. The Unarchiver

Test Time: 0:30

This program offers a simple interface and a wide range of compatibility, but sometimes fails to do the job correctly.

3. Stuffit Expander

Test Time: 0:34

This program is simple to use and is compatible with several formats, however once in a while it won’t extract a file that one of the apps below will.

2. UnRarX

Test Time: 0:34

This is my 2nd choice, as it is simple, has a good interface, and gets the job done.

1. SimplyRAR (v 1.09 w/ rar v 3.90 beta 2)

Test Time: 0:33

SimplyRAR is my personal favorite extraction program. It resembles WinRAR very closely, and works very well at extracting and building RAR files. The time with the readily available version, 1.09, was significantly slower than any of the other programs, but when I upgraded the rar version inside of the .app package, it sped up to 2nd place.

After a very, very, very long hiatus, Old-computer is finally back! You may experience some slight performance quirks while I get my hosting situation worked out, but in the mean time, enjoy the website! Also, if you have any suggestions as to what I should blog about, go ahead and shout them out in the comments!