I have an old VAIO... An S2XP that is giving me graphic card problems, and I'm planning on replacing it. I thought about the entry line MacBook since it's cheap here in Europe (999€). I mostly want a laptop that is small, portable, light and that does it's job.

Problem is I'm going to University this year... Civil Engineering, and I don't know if I need a powerful laptop for it. Don't know what kind of applications I need to use and such and if they will need a powerful laptop.
Thing is my desktop PC is quite powerful, with a Quad Core, 4 GB RAM and a 8800 GT graphics card so I doubt I'll need a powerful laptop like the MacBook Pro
And my VAIO simply won't cut it.
It has a 13 inch screen, its small and light, but with only 512 RAM and a Centrino processor. Quite old to be honest, and the graphics card is giving me problems.

So, is the MacBook good for me? Or I'll need a more powerful laptop? (Like the Macbook Pro)
Thing is my desktop PC is quite powerful, with a Quad Core, 4 GB RAM and a 8800 GT graphics card so I doubt I'll need a powerful laptop like the MacBook Pro

I don't know, you gurus, give me your opinion

hmm, my only concern would be that Auto CAD only comes as windows software, which is pretty much an industry standard. do you know if you will be using it at your university? if so, you will need a copy of vista or xp and install it on the new mac using bootcamp.

I think you'll be surprised at how little you need in terms of computing power at uni - normally they would provide any high end machines that you'd need in labs, you won't be expected to have some beast of a PC. I did the same when I started my course earlier this year, and it turned out that a lot of people were running budget machines suitable for some programming and word processing!
I'm pretty sure a MacBook would be fine for you - notebooks are useful for note taking in lectures and maybe the library, you certainly wouldn't find yourself wanting a beefier system, especially with your desktop!

Ed

edit - also I can highly recommend grabbing a copy of VMware fusion, for running any Windows apps within OSX - including autoCAD check out this.

Exactly. The Laptop would be for taking notes, being a backup at the library. Anything more heavy would be done at the labs or at home.
I guess I'll go for the entry line.

Entry line is really all you need

I guessed so
Just bought a Black MacBook, my family didn't want a white laptop. They said it was to girlish (What the hell? I really didn't expect them to say that)

Really happy with it, no unpacking photos. Bad luck

you bought it from an apple store?

No, from a store close to me.
They were having a promotion. Same discount as Student discount, which is quite handy since I'm not quite eligible for it (yet)

And I don't have to pay taxes, so it came quite cheap

No, from a store close to me.
They were having a promotion. Same discount as Student discount, which is quite handy since I'm not quite eligible for it (yet)

And I don't have to pay taxes, so it came quite cheap