14 DAY TRIAL // Small electrical surges aren't enough to cause current-generation PCs to choke, not really. You won't see your system freeze or crash from most of them. But sometimes lighting hits, or something else can happen.
Voltages which are much greater than the normal working voltage and which appear in a system for a short period of time can still cause trouble. Especially if you don't have a UPS (unlimited uninterruptible power supply) to act as a buffer.
There's no accounting for chance. Not really. You could be unlucky and a lightning strike could hit the electricity or even LAN / Internet cables if you get electricity through an unreachable source (like underground powerlines).
It is, however, possible to make hardware capable of countering power surges though. Biostar did just that to its motherboards, via the SUPER LAN Surge Protection.
From now on, all Biostar motherboards will use small hardware devices built right into the motherboard to limit surge voltages to safe levels.
Not exactly vital in areas of mild weather perhaps, but so many people dwell in regions with risks of thunderstorms and other violent natural phenomena that it's a significant advantage for Biostar.
We'll probably see new motherboards with this SUPER LAN Surge Protection at CES 2015, come January. Maybe even sooner.
