But my opinion is that 60 minutes intervals should be available,blocking anything below this (because checking in 5 minute intervals is absurd). Today basically all antiviruses use hourly checking for updates. Waiting two hours and if you miss the update you have to wait another 2 hours,totaling 4 hours
Thats quiet alot compared to only 2 hours when using 1 hour intervals.
I got this idea long time ago and it can be quiet useful. It's a global bandwidth saving mechanism for updates.
Antivirus should have the option to set the timeframe when you want it to check for updates. I mean for checking only when you actually work with your PC.
For example i use it from around 8:00 AM till 22:00 PM. So i'd set this time in avast! so it won't check for updates while i sleep (i leave PC turned on all the time) because updates won't help me since i can't infect my PC in that time.
When 8:00 AM comes in the morning,avast! will check for updates again and so on till 22:00 PM. Then it will stop again and so on and so on.
Now this might not save much from a single user perspective,but if you take global view it can work quiet nicely,especially because of different timelines in which users with avast! live. This way you balance updates checking and distribution even further.