SandForce Controllers and Encryption

Rob Graham has a good look at the challenges facing SandForce controllers – which are used by a large number of the solid state hard drives on the consumer market – as related to disk encryption. I highly recommend reading it but, if you just don’t have the time, here’s the key takeaway: “The problem with a SandForce controller is that all its features are lost when using full disk encryption, but all its downsides remain. Thus, if you plan on using an SSD for your notebook computer, you should plan on getting something other than a SandForce controller.”