Surge Protection

All computers have surge protection built in - it's called the power supply. Most of the surge protectors you buy are little more than outlet strips with 50c worth of surge arresting components in them that are sold at inflated prices.  The rectification and regulation of the on board power supply that converts the mains AC voltage to the DC needed by your motherboard and other components does an "adequate" job for "surges".  At worst case, the surge may fry that power supply, unless the surge is so large that it goes right through it.

When people used to use modems for internet connectivity (yikes, it seems so long ago!), it was important to also protect the phone line to the modem against surges, because while the main power to the PC went through regulation etc, phone lines plugged straight in and telephone wires could also carry a dangerous surge into your computer.   If you no longer use a modem for internet connectivity, you can ignore that device.

In our opinion, you should have additional surge protection rather than just the system power supply. But when you buy a surge protector, try to find something better than those little power strip things. Although they are better then nothing, they are notoriously unreliable and most won't tell you when they are no longer protecting your equipment. One good surge and your protection is gone - but they continue to function as a power strip. Most computer and electronics stores can sell you a good quality surge protector.

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is your best bet for surge protection. They supply power to your computer from a built in battery. The power is always "clean" and should the power go out, they give you a few minutes (or more) of battery time to save and shut down.   It's usually not power "surges" that cause the most damage to your computer, it's the sudden outages - either black outs or "brown outs".  That sudden interruption of power wreaks havoc with write cycles and other functions of the computer software and hardware and can cause irreparable damage.  Hard drives in particular REALLY do not like sudden power interruptions and are very susceptible to such damage.  That's why rather than a "surge protector", we recommend a UPS to protect your PC.