It's easy to be blase about how it's not that hard, but there's a pretty high penalty for failure and I'm just not a computer hobbyist. I'm not going to buy thermal paste or other specialized tools (spudgers and the like) to do this myself. It's something like $325-$350 for the logic board alone, tools would cost more. And then there's the cost of my time.
From doing some research, it seems as though Apple offers a "flat-rate depot repair" if you know what to ask for, but from what I can tell this service is only available for computers built in the last 5 years. I'll have to contact them directly to find out what it would actually cost to fix this thing, but it's not looking super encouraging.
Edit:
Originally Posted by
shovelhd
No, buy one with a guarantee and swap it yourself.
Oh, I see. Eh. See above. Not crazy about doing that.