The motherboard only takes care of surges for itself, and only small amounts.
Sata drives are powered off the power supply directly.
If you don't have a good power supply, that should be your next investment (and soon!). I recommend buying a really nice one that is over-powered for your setup as they can last a very long time. My last 750 (Pc Power and Cooling before they were bought out) is almost 10 years old still going strong. I replaced it when I had a motherboard problem which turned out to be a graphics/motherboard conflict (it didn't like the board using EFI). Still being used in my server.
Awesome on the ssd, I figured it would make a difference, but I didn't expect such a huge one.
By the way, if your power supply was responsible, you might see a low 5v line in your bios and odds are you would be seeing thumbdrives and usb devices failing as well as they all run on the 5v line. A low line cannot be corrected by the board, it can only smooth out spikes, low amperage (which will show up as low voltage when it runs low on amps) can't be compensated for and is actually just as deadly as a spike, it just takes longer to kill the device. Being off by 3-5% is not unusual, more than 10% could indicate a problem, especially if it is fluctuating by that much. If you do now recognize a trend (failed usb devices), or voltage issues, do not wait, replace that psu NOW. Cheap PSUs and power problems are not to be fooled with. I once lost an entire system to a cheap psu, luckily almost all was under warranty and the rest I warrantied through a buddies shop (good to know people) and I had pretty recent backups. It still hurt though and I was still fighting damaged equipment for weeks afterwards. I don't mess with cheap power supplies on anything I value anymore, it's an investment, like I said, the one is nearly 10 years old and still capable of running anything I throw at it, not many computer parts have that longevity.
