TrueCrypt full disk encryption on the Intel 520 Series SSD

In my experience (about two years of active use, including on the road), SSDs and TrueCrypt are a better match, speed-wise, than regular HDDs and TrueCrypt. Under my workloads (gaming, software development, virtualization) the encrypted SSDs have performed quite well with no stability issues whatsoever.

In you case, it will cost nothing (except for some time) to test whether TrueCrypt is a good fit: full-disk encryption done with TrueCrypt is reversible, so you can encrypt the drive, test-drive for performance, then decide whether you like the result or not. If not, go back to unencrypted state or try BitLocker. Also, becase SSDs outperform average laptop HDDs even on massive block writes, the time penalty for the test would be minimal.

One other thing to consider is AES-NI, the instruction set many recent Intel processors support. If your laptop's CPU supports AES-NI, this will speed-up AES encryption with TrueCrypt about twenty-fold (provided that the disk drive itself isn't a bottleneck).

The only thing to worry about, again from experience, is the SSD firmware/controller issues which may or may not occur on your system. But that would probably be covered by warranty and does not depend on the type of encryption used.


I have a Intel solid 520 series 120 GB. I tried to fully encrypt with TrueCrypt and believe me: It's a bad choice. It will mess up your boot and your information.

TrueCrypt full encryption is not working on this model of SSD. PGP full encryption is not working on this SSD either.