If you get a same revision cube with a working drive it is pretty easy to transfer them over,
Back in the day when my Lik-sang imported Japan Cube's - with US mode switch - drive became flakey for the weekly 4player double dash on the projector@480p after a decade, I was able to steal the one out of my UK unit to put it back in service and was simple enough task.
Although, remembering what I went through to do the hdmi mod on the unit I got a few years back, you might break the mod if swapping out the drive, as the mod wiring is probably covered with gluestick glue to protect it, that might be stuck to the drive housing also.
I've still got my last spare lik-sang bought Cube component lead boxed in the cupboard with no cube for it, a doubly modded cube, the drive can load from -R discs to load Swiss and used sdcards in the memory slots, and the hdmi mod, but I don't really use that either- after I used it to transfer my games to sdcard - despite the picture being very good compared to the component lead, Instead I use a device like
Naked Lunch
mentioned with a firmware modded wii using the lego starwas memory save workaround taking an official wii component lead and piping it through a quality component to hdmi converter, mainly for the benefit of being able to use a wiiu pro controller with nintendont software,
Picture quality in order of best to worst is GC component, hdmi mod is a super close second just lacking a smidge of viberance, and lastly the Wii using component to hdmi and then being enhanced by my HT-NT3 sounbar video processor with a little amount lag added. The last option without the soundbar enhancement is good enough for convenience with 95% of the quality of the mod, but not suited for a purest setup for capture or projector gaming IMO because there is some faint white noise added in the conversion that is hardly noticeable but still annoying.