Building my own? (Score 1)

My old Thinkpad X-series is on its way out, but I'm going to get a new laptop before I go off to college next year. I love the idea of the Eee PC but I don' think I would spend another $250-400 buying an Eee PC if I'm just going to buy a new laptop next summer. How hard would it be to build my own?

I'm thinking one of these:
http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_itemdetail.asp?rid=fd_01&itemid=27208117

Combined with Xubuntu or some similar lightweight operating system in my current Thinkpad X24, and I would have a relatively quick machine that uses little power and weighs less than 3lb (actually, it already weighs something like 2.8lb). In other words, the advantages of an Eee PC without the full investment.

I'm willing to tolerate only 4gb of storage space. My only concern is if it'll work: I've heard things about the volatility of flash storage and how if power goes out, the data is all lost. Given that it's a laptop (and one that's been having battery issues recently), I wouldn't want to risk that, assuming it's true.

Any suggestions? I'd really like to give this a shot if it were possible. It would be a simple project with useful results.