[ale] [OT] Mac hardware maintenance

[JK]

Hi everyone,

A couple of years ago I bought an eMac for my stepson.
It's one of the all-in-one units. Recently, is has started
to freeze up at random, and the warranty period has
long ago expired.

There's an Apple service center nearby (at CompUSA),
but it would cost $120 just for them to look at the
machine and tell us what it would take to fix it. My
question is, would it be reasonable for me to open
this machine up and do the "swap out the RAM, HD,
etc. until things start working" dance? Or should I
leave it to the "professionals" at CompUSA? Web
resources on Mac hardware maintenance seem to be
pretty thin.

Thanks,

-- JK