Creative Zen or Nomad 3 ???

[DoubleK]

I recently became very tired of my Rio Volt MP3 Player as it is a total peice of poop. Headphones sound awesome but break easily. Spent considerable money on Rechargeable Nimh AA's and a charger as it is a battery hog unparrelled, most annoyingly it freezes like crazy playing MP3 discs, hence the reason I bought it. I have tried ripping my MP3's at several different bit rates to no avail.

Anyways, I want to ditch the volt but want to be happy with my next expensive/worthless purchase. I am leaning towards the Cretive Zen because of its size. Whats scares me most about these are the seemingly propiertery batteries? Not to mention Harddisks, are they replaceable when they go south?

Basically any input based upon experience would be appreciated as I need something durable.