I didn't understand how can a surge protector help.

No what it does is cut power to the device when it detects a power surge on the line. It is the same as pulling the plug out of the wall. Not the best thing in the world but far better than letting your computer get hit with a power surge.

A surge protector pops its own circuit breaker before that extra gets to whatever is connected.

A UPS will provide some minutes of power to allow a graceful shutdown in case of power outage.

That should be fine. Most all UPS's have the surge protector built in at least for certain plugs.

I love my PDU. Got a nice 12 way which just about fits everything it needs to in!
Got a nice surge protector in that as well

http://www.pduonline.co.uk/8-way-surge-horizontal-mount-pdu.html

This one isnt the one i have but its similar. I think mine might be rack mountable as well though. Although it lays out just nicely behind my desk.

Surge protector does not do that. The stuff in How Stuff Works is chock full of lies and myths. How a protector works will take many paragraphs because the many half truth and lies must be unexplained. And what a protector really does is completely different. Worse, many completely different devices are also called surge protectors - to muddy the waters and increase sales.

To understand what an effective protector does starts by remembering what was taught in elementary school science.

Lightning seeks earth ground. A path for a 20,000 amp electric surge is via a wooden church steeple destructively to earth. Wood is not a good conductor. So 20,000 amps creates a high voltage. 20,000 amps times a high voltage is high energy. Church steeple damaged.

Franklin installed a lightning rod. Now 20,000 amps is via a wire to an earthing electrode. High current creates near zero voltage. 20,000 amps times a near zero voltage is near zero energy. Nothing damaged.

Lightning seeks earth ground. A lightning strike to utility wires far down the street is a direct strike, incoming to every household appliance, destructively to earth. Appliances are not a good conductor. So lightning creates a high voltage. Lightning current times a high voltage is high energy. Appliances damaged.

For over 100 years, facilities that cannot have damage installed superior earthing connected low impedance (ie 'less than 10 feet') via one 'whole house' protector. Then high current creates near zero voltage. 20,000 amps times a near zero voltage is near zero energy. No appliance is damaged.

Right off, what others have said violates this. For example, how does the millimeter gap in a tripped circuit breaker stop what three kilometers of sky could not stop? How does its hundreds of joules absorb surges that are hundreds of thousands of joules? It doesn't. Quickly identify potentially bogus recommendations (ie what is in How Stuff Works) by text without perspective (ie numbers). No numbers is the first indication of junk science reasoning.

Start with numbers provided by the manufacturer. The adjacent protector only claims to protect from surges that are typically made irrelevant by protection already inside appliances. It does not claim to protect from a typically destructive type of surge that can overwhelm protection inside appliances.

Your protector must work for the same reason Franklin's lightning rod works. Otherwise it is a profit center sold to many who ignore numbers and that science originally introduced in primary school.