It appears that this modification puts alot of load on the server so some php guru named Nico has made a mod that does this much better, but a little harde to apply.. but not impossible..

Find it here: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=133417.msg888234#msg888234

Nico i believe is the founder of the SMF arcade mod aswell

Indeed it puts a load on the server..it was just this I warned about. You need to do just one or 2 db calls - not one per each topic.

I haven't looked at Nico's solution yet, but great if he makes it better.