25 to 30k, well U come in the value catagory
I would recomend an AMD AthlonXP system, not intel
AMD AthlonXP 2800+ Barton core, 512 KB L2 cache
Asus A7N8X normal version
GeForce FX5200 with 128 MB RAM
Keyboard, mouse, speakers of your choice
17" Samsung Syncmaster 773MB monitor
80 GB Seagate HD, 7200 RPM, 7200.7 model
Samsung SM-352B or N Combo drive
Modem, if U will use Dial-Up cos the motherboard has onboard LAN for Cable net or broadband
Since U R eng.s student, U will sure do coding, so for that Windows 98 is highly not recomended, go for XP SP2 pro with any linux U want