There should exist mainboards that support Self Encrypting Device (SED) in BIOS, so when connecting a SSD which have SED support, and SED have been enabled in the BIOS, it prompts on bootup for password.
Searching for "mainboard sed support ssd bios" doesn't give me anything, so I suspect it is called something else.
Question
Does anyone know how to find mainboards that support SED, so the BIOS asks for password for the SSD's SED?
Best Answer
SED means self encryption disk, where the "self" part means that the encryption mechanism is entirely embedded in the disk's controller/firmware.
The motherboard can supply an ATA PASSWORD to seed the encryption engine, and basically ALL motherboards support this. When they don't support ATA PASSWORD, they generally support some newer standards for encryption (see below).
However, this is not even a requirement: newer standards as TCG/Opal enables OS to directly manage the encryption key, bypassing any BIOS requirement regarding the ATA PASSWORD mechanism. What is required, however, is a recent BIOS that correctly enables that TCG mechanism. This is quite common in the mobile/laptop world, much less in the desktops one.