What 3ds Should I Buy?

Hello everyone!

I'm currently looking to buy a 3ds/2ds specifically for modding.

I was mostly looking to see if there is a noticeable performance difference between the new and original 3ds models after modding and was also wondering how easy it is to mod a Japanese region locked 3ds and switch it to english since they do seem to run a little cheaper on ebay.

The only thing I'm interested in playing on the console are just Pokemon games. I'm quite new to Nintendo as a whole, so I am willing to try out some new games :)

Thank you all for your help!