It started around 1.77. Each time I start downloading a big file (1.4 GB or such), T freezes for several seconds, jobs can not be managed and it is impossible to see the stats updated. I suppose that it freezes while reserving the disk space (padding the data). It never happened this way before and worked without such interference. This is somewhat an unpleasant view, because the gui does not respond at all.
I am using Fedora 12 x86-64 on ext3, Transmission 1.83 by now, will provide any other info if needed.