What's easier? Replacing pram battery or hard drive and dvd drive?

Question

I have a dead imac g4 flat panel with all my files and a dvd drive. I have a working imac same year, same processor but with only a cd drive.
First, I want my files.
Then, I wouldn't mind keeping one of them as a dvd player.
Would appreciate any suggestions!
(I don't actually know if it is the battery or power supply which is dead.)

Answer 1

My experiences lately with my NEW (to me) 20" iMac G4.
   1.25 GHZ PPC   1 GB RAM   160 GB HDD
Purchased on eBay in the orginal box for $349.00 delivered.
When the computer arrive it appeared to be in excellent shape.  It turned on and operated without any problems.  I really purchased as a project, and intended to restore to as NEW as possible.  The iMac arrive with the usual specification for the model (born on date 3/2004).  Specification were 1.25 GHZ PPC, 1GB RAM 512/slot.
So I purchased some parts to get started (like I said above everything worked).
1.  OWC RAM 1GB/slot for a total of 2BG's  ($55.98/Free shipping)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/2700DDRS1GBA/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/2700DDR1024/
2.  OWC PRAM battery ($3.99/free shipping)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/BAA36VPRAM/
3.  OWC LG internal Optical Drive ($45.99/free shipping)
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/imac/g4
4.  IOGEAR Bluetooth (ver 2.1) Adapter (USB 2.0 Micro)  ($13.99/free shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833139019
5.  Apple Wireless Magic Mouse (had a spare)
6.  Apple USB Keyboard (newest) (had a spare)
Before installing the parts I cleaned out the dust and grim (nasty dirty), removed the Fan and cleaned (nasty dirty), I also removed the Thermal Grease and applied new Thermal Grease (used Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound).  I used a powerful vaccum and a air compressor (120 psi), and damp Q-Tips.
On the outter shell and back of monitor I used SoftScrub/Bleach lite scrub and then rinsed with a damp cotton rag (looks brand NEW).  Was sure to remove ALL of the SoftScrub.
On the screen I used iKlear and a iKlear cleaning cloth, screen is in MINT condition.
Honestly the computer looks and operates much better than I had anticipated.
I really didn't need to install a new Optical drive in the 20" but it was a cheap upgrade.  And so.  I have a iMac G4 17" with the same spec's as the 20" iMac so I opted to install the 20" iMac's Optical drive in the 17" iMac.  The 17" would only play CD'd and not DVD's.
After putting everything back together I installed Leopard 10.5.6, then upgraded to 10.5.8.  I installed Quicktime 7.7 for Leopard and iTunes 10.6.3.  Installed iLife09 (no iMovie), iWorks09, Superduper (latest), and Disk Warrior 4.4,
I chose not to upgrade the HDD simple because it is working fine and I don't have any critical information stored on it.
My final upgrade would be to install a new FAN but I'll wait on that for a while.  Since the Fan operates fine it does have a very, very slight whine meaning the bearings are starting to wear a bit.  Probably because of the dirt and grime that was on there from before.
I would like to buy a NEW Fan to install but right now the only option is to buy a Apple Fan (part# 622-6215).  I wouldn't mind a non OEM Fan but the little fins on the side of the Fan's walls are a concern for proper air flow.
http://www.welovemacs.com/9226215.html  ($69.95 + $4.50 shipping).