Replying to Mac Mini vs Macbook

I know lots of people with Mac books but I have never seen a Mac Mini. Are they basically a laptop without the display/keyboard/mouse/ etc?? I need to upgrade from my Powerbook to something with an Intel chip so I can run bootcamp and autocad. A laptop is nice but I only use it as a laptop 3 times a year or so. At home I have it set up pretty much as a desktop (I have a nice widescreen monitor, speakers, etc..) So basically I need to know if a Macbook is that much better than the Mac mini.