MANWHOR3, I have a friend who is setting up the USB boot up for me to test, will get the link to the info and post when he gives it to me... my issue with that is even if you load OS on USB, you still need storage for MP3, movies, gps (lets say you could prob get away with having the maps etc on the usb key) but for other sotorage what you gonna use? I guess my suspension prob isn't as hard as yr coz mines has been in for just over a week now , if/when the HHD sh#%s itself then I'll look into something else, but for the moment, its all working fine...
Power unit/GPS receiver/Screen - eBay
mother board - http://eyo.com.au
HDD/RAM - local computer shop
Persplex - Bunnings