It's not so much the temperature but the capacity/wattage that matters. Ground wires will suck the heat right out of the soldering iron quickly if there is not enough wattage. Last year I purchased one of the 75w chinese knockoffs on ebay and have not looked back. Someone else might be able to chime in about the best type of solder, I use a random roll I found in the scrap bin at work.

You should get a soldering iron with temperature control, much better time soldering when the temperature doesn't drop as soon as you put it to anything. My soldering iron is a 50W Weller WES51, and it's been pretty good to mee so far. Only time I've had trouble is trying to desolder a heatsink from a Space Invaders board.

Check out Circuit Specialists....They make some very good but inexpensive equipment. I have one of their de-soldering stations and it works perfect.

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/soldering-stations