Mostly viewing 2D images. Nothing too labor intensive, was hoping to get a desktop that just runs smooth and a nice monitor 24-26" for 1,500-1,700.
Alright, that should be easily doable. I would recommend getting as nice of a monitor as you can and then getting "enough" desktop for the rest.
I specced out an Optiplex 980 with an i5 650, 500GB HDD, 4GB of RAM, DVD-RW, and a 24" U2410 for a montor. The total comes to $1545.
I left the standard Vista Basic because I'm assuming that your IT folks will be imaging it with some other OS.
I said "enough" in quotes because that system would definitely be fast enough for what you're doing and the monitor is quite nice.