In 2008 I had a C2D E4300 @ 3GHz, 2GB DDR2-900 & 6800 GS, in fact I finished Crysis with that rig! And I had also a CRT (21", 1600x1200 @ 85Hz), got my first TFT in 2010 (a 17" 1280x1024) while I had a free weekend as I was in the military then (as here in Finland we have conscription in Finnish Defence Forces, served 180 days).
Also I love hardware from that era as LGA775 chips are something that you get hella cheap or even for free these days. AM2/AM2+/AM3 hardware is also hella cheap. And when you have a good board like I have (Asus P5Q Pro and Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA), playing around with these is simply fun.