Benefits of SMTP over PHP?
 

OK so I'm intending to give my site a much more subscription orientated feel, as a result I intend to send a lot of e-mails. These will be automatic, as well as manual. As it is, my userbase is in the UK and the server is in the USA, it isn't high spec and it's beginning to show it's age with the whole site running in a shared environment. That isn't the concern at the moment though, the mail is. Will moving to an SMTP config reduce server load in general? More importantly, will SMTP allow me to send e-mails more often and faster? For instance if I do a mailout to all users it can sometimes take hours with it often halting on individual users for obscene lengths of time. Finally, anyone know where I can rent a cheap and secure SMTP server? Thanks. :)