How CFMail processes

Hey all,

I am using CFmail to send e-mail based on addy's in a database. I tested it out, using the app to send mail to a bunch of addresses and when the mail arrives it appears as a direct email with only a single name in the "to" box insted of a huge mass mail sent to millions of people with millions of addy's, which is good.

My question is, when coldfusion/the mail server is sending out the mail, does anyone know in general how badly that bogs down the servers?

So, if I sent it to 30 addresses, 300, or 3000000, is there a particular number of addy's I should try to keep my list below, or can CF only process a certain number etc etc.

I figure it has a lot to do with hardware, quicker the machine, quicker it processes, so, i'm looking for a very general answer.

Thanks

Yes it depends on the hardware. But sending email out to millions of addresses is going to bog down the server no matter how big the box is. So if you have to do this, you can either schedule it late at night or something, or build a dedicated box just for sending the email. When you get up to that number of messages the limiting factor may actually be network bandwidth even more than the hardware.

Well, it's more like 400 addresses...I assume that shouldn't bog down the system?

No, 400 emails on a decent box should only spike the processor for a second or two. I thought you were talking about sending millions of emails which is a whole other set of concerns.