I've had one since they first came out and think its wonderfull. To be honest thouhg, it gets most use when i'm travelling.
I've no problems with the build quality and while you dont say if you will be using it with a pc or a mac, I would advise downloadinf the itunes software as the musicmatch program the pc version shipped with was bloody terrible.
I understand that it also ships with a USB2 connector as well as a firewire one which is great news.
I've used my friend's, and I definitely want to get one, though I might wait and see if the price drops. Despite my friend being a real music fan, and having tons of mp3s already on it, he's not even close to filling it up yet, because there's so much space (he has a 20 gig one). It's pretty user friendly aswell.
what about the battery time tho, something like 5 hours before you have to charge it again doesn't seem that good for traveling to me, thats why i didn't get one anyway