Workstation Recommendations, Anyone?

Ben Perrault would like to query you all on this small matter: "I plan on purchasing a new workstation in (roughly) the $5000 dollar range, and even though I've been using Linux for about 3 years now, It's always been on older Intel/Sun hardware. What would be the most system for my buck? Alpha? Intel? PowerPC? SPARC? I just don't know! All I know is I need at least 128MB of RAM and would like something that supports Ultra2-Wide SCSI, and can handle a resolution of 1280x1024 under X, and can really crunch numbers. Any suggestion or Help?"