If I was building one for myself and had that budget, I'd start along these lines:
PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 Haswell 3.3GHz ($254.00 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek GAIA SD1283 56.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($21.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($212.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($128.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($83.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($448.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($448.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Silverstone RV03B-W ATX Full Tower Case ($130.07 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-14D1XT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($94.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus PA248Q 24.1" Monitor ($290.08 @ Amazon)
Total: $2574.94
Here's my explanation:
CPU - No, this isn't overclockable. However, the Xeon is basically a locked i7. You get hyper-threading and the larger cache for just a little more than an i5. So if you're throwing heavy compute at this thing, it'll beat an i5. And at 3.3GHz, you're not going to be hurting for speed either. Not OCing also means lower temps and less electricity to run it.
Cooler - This isn't necessary for heat, but it will run quieter than the stock cooler.
Mboard - You don't need the OC ability, but it has two PCIe 3.0 slots for SLI/XFire and an eSATA port, which I really like and find useful.
RAM - 16GB if you're running VMs, or other professional level stuff.
Triple Storage - Let me explain this. The SSD is for your OS, primary games, and some applications. The faster barracuda is for all your other applications that won't fit on the SSD. The slower caviar is for mass data storage.
GPU - SLI 770 will decimate just about anything in this price range. It can power a 2560x1440 monitor easily or triple displays too.
PSU - Seasonic makes the best, it's 80 Gold efficient, and it's modular for clean cabling inside the case.
Opt drive - Blu-ray, just because.
Display - I like a 16x10 ratio better for working, plus this thing has full height, swivel, and tilt adjustments, as well as a built-in USB 3.0 hub.
Case - I have the Raven right now and I love it. It's durable, reasonable quiet, and excellent at cooling, even axial fan GPUs.
I'll call this build "reasonable overkill." You could pare back on some of this stuff without affecting performance depending on what you need. If you're not going to run any type of professional app on this thing like coding, 3D modeling, or video editing, you can drop the RAM to 8GB and even cut the CPU back to an i5. If you don't want the Blu-ray drive, save $80 and get a normal DVD drive. You can trim back the HDDs to 1TB and 2TB respectively, or cut one out altogether if you don't need that much space. And unless you're gaming across multiple monitors, the dual 770s are way overkill. For $2500, you might actually cut this back to a pure gaming machine and still afford three new displays.