The strength of your computers doesn't matter in going solo, only your balance (aka stake) matters.
When you are solo, the higher your balance, the more often you get your research rewards and the research rewards are saved for upto 6 months. As long as your balance is high enough to stake within six months you will end up getting the same research reward.
The pool is just a way to guarantee you get regular payouts when you are starting out with a low balance at the expense of your voting rights and the ability to fine tune your crunching. You are basically working for the pool owners who then pays you your research rewards out of the pooled earnings.
RE: OK, ready to start (I think) :-)))