Enabling (via mobo bios) SSD Full Disk Hardware Encryption

[RhoXS]

I am using an ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) that is less than one year old and has the latest bios rev installed. I am considering replacing my 128 GB Samsung 830 SSD with a 256 GB Samsung 840 SSD primarily because the 840 includes hardware based "Advanced AES 256-bit ATA full disk encryption".

In another forum a thread stated that it was necessary for the motherboard bios to support hardware based drive encryption and it was enabled via the bios. Even though I have a late model mobo, there is nowhere in the bios menus I can find to enable hardware based hard drive/SSD encryption.

I would appreciate some more insight into this as I find it incredible that my mobo, less than one year old, does not support hardware based encryption.

 

[RhoXS]

Just an update to my post above and a more specific request for help.

After much research, including talking with a knowledgeable tech support guy with Samsung (in New Jersey), I learned the motherboard must support TPM (Trusted Platform module). Then, a "HDD Password" option will appear in one of the bios setup screens. Setting this password is all that is indeed necessary to enable HDD/SSD based hardware encryption.

So, what reasonably priced motherboards support TPM? At this time I lean toward ASUS motherboards but would be willing to consider another vendor as long as they have a reputation for reliable and stable motherboards (e.g. Gigabyte).

To say I am unhappy my less than one year old ASUS P6P67 Pro Ver 3.1 does not support TPM would be a massive understatement.

 

[artvscommerce]

I know the Intel DQ67TM has the support you're looking for, but that chipset is not ivy bridge compatible. I was looking everywhere for a board with this support a while back and that was all I could find at the time. I tried many TPM motherboards but found they still didn't have the capability. I believe the name of the support you need is called "ATA Security Feature Set". At the time it was very common for laptops, but not so much for desktop boards. Since this was ~2 years ago it's possible it's more common with the current boards, but I haven't looked for it on anything newer than the DQ67TM.

 

[artvscommerce]

I just realized you're using a sandy bridge CPU so I guess the lack of ivy bridge support on the dq67tm wouldn't be a problem for you.