Well, at least I know there is interest out there (and of course, there
are those who aren't interested, thanks for your input too). Thanks
for the great info, everone!

Just some things that I've learned and I'll share.

- Johnhh, the VIA is a little slower, definitely, but I've found it to
be more than sufficient for most everyday tasks, and it exceeds most
hardware requirements for navigation programs (everything I've seen
except for Nobeltec's Admiral "recommended" hardware, it blows away the
minimum requirements). Even Pentium M's can't meet Admiral's
recommended hardware. I've looked at Pentium M, but I think the cost
isn't worth it. It would jack up the price by a couple hundred and the
performance gain isn't really worth it. Of course, people know
"Pentium" though.

- I looked at Shuttle, but they seem to have focused on Pentium 4
processors. The problem is power consumption there. The P4 chip
itself can draw 70-90 Watts, my whole system draws ~25W at idle, ~50 at
peak performance. VIA runs cooler and much more efficient.

- Embedded OS is a great idea. I don't know much about Win XP
Embedded, but I'll definitely be looking at that. I know there are
devices that allow you to boot a PC from CF card, just like any IDE
drive, I just thought they were too small for Win XP (the largest I've
seen is 2 GB). Maybe Embedded gets around that.

- Currently, I'm using a 2.5" disk in a shock-resistant mounting
bracket (exactly like you said, Meindert). It's worked well so far.
Power consumption is minimal, and I think negligible if we're talking
about P4 chips. I did an experiment recently, where I installed 2 2.5"
drives, ran a stress test and measured power consumption, then I
removed one drive and ran the same test. I couldn't see a noticeable
difference (on an analog ammeter, maybe I'd have seen a difference on
digital, regarless, it was minimal if anything). The manufacturer says
it consumes .6 W at idle (no measurement at peak), so spinning drives
that aren't being accessed really isn't as big a problem as one might
think, at least not with this drive. One recent customer had 2 drives,
one for everyday access, the other for backup. This kept power
consumption to a minimum.

Eric