Ok so pool mining is for me then!
If I wanted to go solo do I need a much bigger mining rig?
I don't know where the threshold where it might make sense to be solo mining, it is most likely over 50 GHash/s nowadays.
So ya, ... a much bigger rig.
P2Pool miners also have the requirement of a local blockchain. Anyone can participate in P2Pool, though there too variance gives the advantage to those with a fair amount of hashing capacity.