50-850KB/s Download?

[#1]

Hi guys :P,
not been using my PC much as I have been using the glorious weather to my full advantage :D. Anyway, I recently decided to get back into PC gaming so I ordered a brand new WD Blue 1TB HDD and started to download games off steam. Whilst downloading ARMA II and DayZ:Mod, I noticed that speed were fluctuating enormously.  I understand this isn't a high priority thing but I there anything that can be done (At my end or somewhere else) to increase those download speed back to 20ish like before?

[#2]

There's a steam sale going on at the moment, so the Steam content servers are going to be getting absolutely hammered as everyone rushes to download the games they've just bought.
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/

[#3]

I always find I get better results by switching ''settings - downloads - download location'' to Ireland, particularly during sales.