Does this happen to everyone with Asset Server?

We recently switched to 3.5 and have a cache server running in addition to the asset server repo. Commits are quite fast, and although the updates from the server are improved in that we do not have to reimport assets that someone else already imported (because of the cache), there is an odd (and very slow) behaviour that really puts a damper on it.

What happens: Server tab, see a list of updates, press Update. There is a nearly instantaneous progress bar that flashes on the screen (I cannot tell what it says), then for literally 5-8 minutes the Update button still appears pressed (Unity is locked and working on something), then a progress bar appears and things proceed well. During that time, Unity is using CPU between 3-25%.

What is happening during that 5-8 minute period, does it happen to anyone else, and how can we improve it?

 

I see a 30 seconds delay here, but maybe it depends on the amount of updates there are.
We are not running the cache server though... it just started doing this since 3.5.

Are you using .max files or fbx files for models?
We have an increase in problems with the asset server since 3.5. Unity becomes unresponsive a lot when importing assets after an update.

 

We're using Blender. I have noticed that the imports of .blend files take longer, but that is likely the update to Blender 2.62 which coincided with our update to Unity 3.5, and fortunately the cache server means only one person needs to endure that. I definitely recommend running the cache server if you are all co-located.

Regarding the speed, our repo is about 9GB (I'm guessing that's neither huge nor small). However the really long delay seems to happen even if you are only updating one or two small items.

 

We are encountering the exact same thing, even with minor updates (3-4 scripts only). Spins for around 5 min, then begins the update like normal. On Mac OSX Lion (happened on Snow Leopard as well). Started happening with Unity 3.5.