I don't know how many times i've heard that I should "buy a surge suppressor" 😛 like that will help a direct lightning strike. Note the keyword in that sentence: direct lightning strike (to the house). If you think I was seriously not using a surge protector do you really think I would have parts of my computer be normal? I would also like to point out yet again that it did not come through the power cable, it came through the ethernet cable. I agree with the last statement...I had it going through there on this one and my performance was significantly degraded, however a replacement Surge Protector of higher quality probably shouldn't yield those same results. I regard the previous Belkin one of great quality, regardless of the loss of electronics (however you should realize it was a direct strike to the house) because not much will survive that strike (and not much did, actually).
Case in point: the other computer was on another Belkin surge protector and was 15 ft away from the strike and the only thing that was damaged was the NIC card in the computer. The findings of a company doing a required analysis of the damaged PCs confirmed it did NOT come through the Power Cord as you all would think. The main evidence is this: not everything was destroyed, and both PSUs are perfectly normal (both Enermax 350W ones too). The other NIC was not on-board, but was still destroyed regardless of the fact that we put it through the surge protector. Just because it is going through a surge protector doesn't mean you're completely safe from a direct strike (it may seem unlikely to most, but you always have to know that). Many sources agreed that the only reason the other one didn't have more damage was because the NIC was not onboard and was shorted out so fast that it didn't travel onto the motherboard. However, mine was right in there w/ the mobo and there was nothing stopping it from shorting out it and other parts.
The main difference why everything, minus the monitor and microwave, was destroyed in this room is we put some heavy gauge wire going to this room to accommodate the power requirements (12 gauge comes to mind, but I am not sure off the top of my head). If it did come through the PSU, that immense of an EMP would for sure have destroyed both of them. Not only did it destroy most of our electrical components, but it took out the TVs of our neighbors. None of our wiring was melted and the only visible sign of it is discoloration where the charge built up. So you see it was clearly the work of a MASSIVE emp.
Alright now that I have eliminated those saying 'buy a surge suppressor', I would like to say that I am banking on that Intel NIC card I saw at Newegg or possibly a 3com card. Whether I should get a high quality, brand name card or some no-name is my business, so leave it at that. What about the D-Link cards though? Is the D-Link DFE-530TX+ a good card? I have a D-Link switch for the upstairs Ethernet Jacks and it works great (we replaced it with the same model after the strike, in fact) so I figured that maybe they made good NIC cards too.
