If you want to stick with DOS/Windows, I just ordered a pretty good deal from
Gateway Computers in Iowa. 486DX-66 with 16 meg ram, 730 MB harddrive, 15"
monitor for $2100. An HP Scanjet IIcx will set you back about $990 from any
one of a number of vendors. I ordered four of these for our Education
Department here (Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland) and had
shopped around a bit. I was a little uneasy about going mail order, but
cleared the idea with our committee that is organizing the whole museum for
networking, etc. They were okay with that. Gateway has a three-year warranty,
which is good. Also, their machines come with software packages included with
the machine price that are workth another $300-$400.
 
So, I think that your price range is a very reasonable guess. Get lots of
ram....new operating systems will be requiring it and its cheaper to buy it
installed new.
 
Perhaps others can recommend good Mac hardware for you.