automatic update

ive noticed that when automatic update checking is turned on it makes the admin section really slow on local installations of drupal 6.x. I dont know if it is just a co-incidence or if it is a known issue. I currently run all of my drupal developments on my development pc running wampserver 2. I am working on installing my local lamp server.

I dont really know why it would make the admin section slower except that it is probably making too many calls to the drupal server. Its not a real train-smash but it would be nice if someone could tell me if the update dingus does really slow the system down or if it is something else.