Bringing my imac G5 on tracks

Hello,

So, for Christmas, I found my old yet beloved iMac G5 isight, that I did not use for a couple of years, and turned it on. I want to use it as a jukebox for music on a NAS. I heard the ticking noise from the hard drive that told me the HDD is dead. It did not boot up, and stayed on the ? blinking logo. The superdrive does not work so here is my question: how to bring it back to life ?

I have a mac mini (intel), couple of external HDD on firewire and a universal 10.5 copy (and 10.4 if needed). I also have an external DVD player (samsung) if needed (apparently, the iMac did not accept this as a solution to boot up). I am ready to open the iMac and change the HDD. Though, how to install the OS on the other HDD ? Could I use my mini (intel) to do that ?

A side question: is it worth doing an upgrade to a SSD rather than a HDD ? Also, which brand / model to order ?

I hope there is a Santa Claus out there that will help me !

Thanks a lot

Damien