I suppose it is just time to say "screw it" and build another computer...
 

I'm in college, I live with my dad. We have a fight, he kicks my computer, computer doesn't start up. After a bit of looking inside, here is what I find:

That kick somehow broke off a couple of pieces of the motherboard and the video card.

So essentially, my computer is shot. I doubt non-other than Jesus himself could fix it at this point.

I am looking in the market to buy a new computer within the next 6 months. Something to use for gaming, programming, and in general as a central hub. I want it to work well enough to play the majority (if not all) of the games out in that time frame well, but don't want to have to upgrade it for a few years. At the same time, I cannot afford to just buy top end parts, so that is out. So what kind of parts am I looking to buy if I am trying to maintain a balance between affordability and longevity?

For starters you could build it into a fireproof safe. That'd take care of any future kicks.

Unfortunately, with the way game programmers are inflating requirements (Crytek I'm looking at you, you nVidia share-boosting cocksuckers), this part:

Is sadly going to be a one-or-the-other deal. I'd wait for ATI or nVidia to announce some earthshattering new product line and then jump on the inevitable price drop of their current (or then old, I guess) stuff.

My advice is to focus most on getting a great motherboard and a good proc. RAM is pretty cheap so that won't be much of an issue, but video cards are an upgrade treadmill from hell. There's little way to win with respect to video unless you have gobs of cash that you're willing to dump into it. A solid mobo will save you a lot of headaches in general as well as offering some nice features of its own (onboard gig-e, onboard RAID, onboard audio, plenty of USB/1394 connections), and a good proc will help your performance overall. Athlon64 X2s are really cheap now that the Phenom's out so you can get some pretty good CPU oomph for not too much cash. Grab a Socket AM2/AM2+ mobo and you can always upgrade to a Phenom later on.