Here is a system I support at work a lot and I have played with them and they are pretty rock solid.

Price about 2,399.00 WITH good 24" monitor.

Dell T3400
QuadCore 2.4GHz Processer
4Gigs Of Ram (2 sticks of ram...not four so you can add more without tossing the origonal if you want to go to 8gigs.)
Vista Ultimate for the OS
Nvidia Quadro FX1700 Dual DVI video card with 512MB ram
80GB Hard Drive
Dell 24" Ultrasharp 2408WFP Monitor

You will be ready for the new CS4 when it comes out which will be designed to leverage 64bit operating system....and more than 4GB of ram.....you will thank me for that one later when it is out....lol.

I custom build my own machines, and will soon upgrade my MB, memory and processor...with a better graphic card in the wings here in 2009.

And Dell has a really decent warranty department. I am Dell certified and really enjoy working with them.

If your accident prone....get the accidental dammage warranty...even it its your fault...no problems....instant repair or replacment ...no questions asked.

Roman