Still running a Macbook Pro early 2011…it is my main workhorse… literally runs 24/7…
Motherboard died in 2017, the day I updated to Sierra, a month after the date limit for the extended warranty… bought a new Apple board ('''$1300… thanx for nothing Apple''') at the time… updated this to Sierra and again…pooof… luckily where I bought the board, they replaced it…
A few months later, again, the board started going (those having the issue, know the signs) ..I opened it up and, '''while I will be the first to say it is defiantly not by the book''', removed the motherboard, and '''CAREFULLY''' heated the processor/graphic chip with a heat gun, then added 2 small flat copper heat sinks between the processor, graphic chip and heat sink (cleaned and new thermal paste also), and have not had a problem since.
Have since, maxed the memory, updated to high sierra and recently added an SSD hd…