I noexec-flag volumes that I wont be running anything executable from, like generic \'archive\' style bunches of stuff, software, source code, packages and other stuff.
flaringpain, what are you using to download? Browser based download methods are not as reliable or efficient as downloading via gftp, wget and other similar tools, in my opinion, plus they usually dont have the option of resumable downloads or uploads. Which is a nice thing if you are trying to get a 200MB+ executable or .iso over a modem link.
Bittorrent should be very reliable too, it does all sort of error checking in the background as its downloading.