Surge suppression isn't all it's cracked up to be. I work in an MSP and the number of electrically fried components behind Enterprise grade UPSs is pretty astounding.

I'm not saying it's worthless, but it's not silver bullet. You must plan for failure.

Yep, I've had a PSU get friend by a power spike even though it was plugged in through a surge protector. Like you say, I'm sure it helps, but it's not perfect.

Surge protection isn't a big thing in the UK these days. You can get arresters but it's really rare now to hear of computer damage as a result of mains spikes.

Yeah but don't you think having a raid array but not having a surge protector is missing the forest for the trees?

Power surges, brownouts etc. don't really exist in large parts of Europe. I also never unplugged my computer(s) in thunderstorms (some of which are on a USP, most of which were simply plugged into mains, no surge protector, no USP) and lost exactly zero computers to that.

One of the few things that actually routinely comes with real surge arresters (i.e. gas-discharge tubes, not the MOVs plastered all over the place) is anything connected to a telephone line, e.g. A/VDSL modems. On some old PBXs for analog lines these were even contained in field-replaceable modules.

Can confirm, I think it's over ten years since my last power glitch. I don't think I've ever even seen a surge protector; UPS I've seen a couple of times at people who run servers at home.

I re-read the article twice and didn’t see him mention he didn’t have a surge suppressor. Did I miss it or are you assuming that he didn’t have a surge suppressor?

As others have said, electronics can get fried by power surges while plugged into even commercial grade surge suppressors. Home grade surge suppressors provide even less protection.

He didn't mention having one either. It's weird not to mention anything at all about surge protection in a story about a power surge destroying important equipment. I'd assume if he had one he'd mention the state it was in after his equipment was destroyed.

You don't have lightning in the UK?

I wouldn't plug any PC into anything not surge protected...

I have never used a surge protector, and I don't think I've ever seen one in a home or office.

Much of Europe uses buried cables, so there's less risk from lightning strikes, and I think the higher line voltage (230V) reduces the effect of something like a dodgy elevator motor in the same billing.

I have visited the US a few times, where I remember the lights would dim momentarily if the garbage compactor or the dryer were used.