black MB or Pro + RAM Upgrades

hi all, just registered here.
i'm buying my first laptop and mac, as i can't stand my old desktop machine anymore and am tired of having to play a couple of rounds of darts while waiting for a photoshop action.

i need some adivce on weather to get a MB or a MBP

now the MB black appels to me for its ultra mobility, its 250gb hardrive etc. but one thing i need to know is weather i can run say a 20-30 inch monitor smoothly, friends on my graphic design course are telling me different things. some say it won't be as good with its shared graphics, and others are telling me it will run fine.
i'm not into gaming that much, maybe a n64 emulator from time to time, but thats it. it will be for graphics work in PS and ILLS etc, i'll have a big monitor at home on the desktop and wen i go into class i can just shove it in my bag.

or should i spend that bit more for a pro which seems in my mind an expensive luxury for a 19yr old graphics student.

i can get the MB black with a student discount for about £850 which is amazing value in my eyes. with money left over i can buy a big monitor and upgrade the RAM to 4gb for £75. this brings me to my second question, i know i will void the warranty if i upgrade the RAM but if something goes wrong and have to send it back, can i not just switch it back to standard RAM before i send it off, or do they have some way of checking?

sorry for the essay but i don't wanna rush.
any help would really be appreciated
cheers, matt

IMO, if you are needing your laptop to work on graphic intensive applications, the MBP is the better choice. Your friends are correct in stating that the graphic memory on the MB is shared, and your graphic processor on the MB is an integrated intel chip, rather than a dedicated graphics accelerator that can effectively relieve your CPU from the more intensive computation work. The MBP has a dedicated graphics accelerator with it's own dedicated memory that will relieve the CPU of this task and enable you to multitask more effectively and quickly. The MB will eventually get the job done, (as well as enable you to connect to a separate monitor), but the MBP is better suited to the task that you have in mind.

adding, changing, upgrading ram does not void your warranty.

The only thing the MacBook would get you is slightly improved portability. Given what you want to do I would recommend the MBP. And get the RAM aftermarket - as PowerBookG4 states, it does not void your warranty.