Buying Confusion

[Hemansk]

Hi there!
I'm a previous owner of the dreaded 2011 15'inch MBP. After 6 and a half years of ups and downs, I have finally laid my MBP to rest as many cooks have spoilt the broth including the ones at the Apple Care.
So, here I am, again at the crossroads, deciding to buy an MBP. Unlike the previous time, I'm on a shoestring budget and the fear of GPU failure. So, I have rounded up 4 MacBooks and I would really appreciate if anybody can guide me on this asap. My work would include college work, my blog/website writing/editing work, and a bit of photo/video editing. Following are my options:
1. A Mid-2010 13' White MacBook (Core2Duo 2.4ghz)
2. A Mid-2010 13' Unibody Aluminium Macbook Pro(Core2Duo 2.4ghz)
3. A Late 2011 13' Unibody Aluminium MacBook Pro(i5 2.4ghz )
4. A 2012 13' Unibody Aluminium MacBook Pro. (i5 2.5ghz )

I have read on some forums that the LogicBoard and GPU issue had plagued only the 15' and 17' inch versions of the 2011 MBPs and especially those with the i7 models.

Guidance and suggestion would be really appreciated.

 

[nick9191]

Probably best to avoid the Core 2 Duo's. Have you considered a MacBook Air? They can be had for relatively cheap used, being the cheapest laptop Apple offers, and I don't recall any particularly fatal issues with the classic style. Any 2012+ model will run Catalina whereas only option 4 in your list will run Catalina (officially).

Looking at Geekbench, pretty much any i5 MacBook Air seems to score higher than a Core 2 Duo even despite the much lower clock speed.

Failing that, if you definitely want one of the 4 you listed, I would definitely go with option 4 since it's the fastest and will run the latest Mac OS. The graphics are Intel so you shouldn't experience GPU failure since it's onboard.

Edit: Sorry and welcome to the forum!

 

[Hemansk]

Hey Thanks Nic for the warm welcome.

Thank you for your insight.
I'm in India and the Air is an expensive model.

There are two main constraints for making this purchase: 1. Financial Breakdown and 2. Lockdown.
In such a scenario, the above listed 4 models are the only viable options at the moment. I wanted to go for an iMac since it is quite cheaper but it isn't available at the moment and work can not wait as I need to provide my side hustle a little stimulus.

From what I have read the MBP 2012 13" inch also suffers through the Logicboard failures. One of my friends has this and here's a link for that forum: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7106837

I'm not sure about this because I have been getting mixed reviews on that. I guessed that MBP 2012 and 13' MBPs in general aren't affected by the GPU and LogicBoard failures but after last nights's research, I have different findings, which led me here.
I am really boggled as to what works and what doesn't.
What I really need is a stable machine at the moment to help run my website and a little graphic work enough for making Posters and Flyers, even maybe through iWork.

 

[duffman9000]

I'd advise against buying anything so old. A machine from 2011-2012 may already be on its last supported version of OS X.

As an owner of a 2011 15" that is modded to work (dGPU failure), I think you're after a Mac that does not have a discrete GPU. I'm looking for the same. I don't want to deal with another dGPU failure. I don't know if you care about running the latest version of OS X. I'm stuck running an older version and worse, it's struggles in light duties like web browsing.

 

[Hemansk]

I'd advise against buying anything so old. A machine from 2011-2012 may already be on its last supported version of OS X.

As an owner of a 2011 15" that is modded to work (dGPU failure), I think you're after a Mac that does not have a discrete GPU. I'm looking for the same. I don't want to deal with another dGPU failure. I don't know if you care about running the latest version of OS X. I'm stuck running an older version and worse, it's struggles in light duties like web browsing.

Thank You duffman9000.
Yes, I'm looking for a Mac that doesn't have dGPU. I'm traumatized after the 6 year struggle of getting a stable MacBook. Being in India, we don't really have a thing like Best Business Bureau or anything that looks after the interests of the customer. During 2013-15, I was fighting a lone battle against the Apple's callous approach to resolve the LogicBoard issue. There were a couple of odd members who were active on the petitions and various platforms which voiced the concerns of the MBP users. I'm really tired and frustrated of that. Don't want to go through that again.

The newer Macs suffer through some or the other issue and are beyond my pocket.
I'm not that keen on running the latest version of the OS X. I have used my MBP 2011 with OS Mountain Lion. Yes, web browsing was a pain but a memory upgrade helped me for 2 years until the MBP broke with LogicBoard failing. I was on the 5th board replaced by Apple.

Hence, the above models are what I'm looking at.

 

[hobowankenobi]

My department has a 2011 15" MBP that has been rock solid since new. It got an upgrade to an SSD about 4 years ago, and RAM from 4 to 8GB, and runs 10.13 nicely. Stll very good for general purpose work, though the battery is just about shot (very short run time, needs to be replaced). Don't know the exact spec, and don't know if we just got lucky...or what. Never any hardware issues.