So I worked around this eventually. My solution has a structure as follows:
C:\Data\Bus\VS\Projects\Solution.sln
C:\Data\Bus\VS\Projects\Proj1\
C:\Data\Bus\VS\Projects\Proj2\
C:\Data\Bus\VS\Projects\Proj3\
etc
Because these are used all the time, I have mapped a drive letter:
P = C:\Data\Bus\VS\Projects\
to this area for easier access to the solution using the following:
P:\Solution.sln
P:\Proj1\
P:\Proj2\
P:\Proj3\
I have found that VS2008 does not like opening the solution via the mapped drive letter (P), this is where the slower build with PCH occurs.
But if I open with a full path directly to the C drive, the PCH gives excellent speed advantage as expected.
Anyone have any idea about this? I can only think that the drive aliasing is giving VS the wrong impression that the PCH is always out of date, and so it rebuilds it with every file. Very mysterious.