System Encryption: BitLocker And TrueCrypt Compared

Features
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Now that Intel offers hardware-based AES acceleration in a number of its mainstream processors, it's time to take a look at two of the most popular system encryption tools, BitLocker and TruCrypt, both of which are able to harness the hardware feature.

Test Setup And Settings

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System Hardware
HardwareDetails
Motherboard (Socket LGA1156)Gigabyte P55A-UD7  (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: P55; BIOS: F3 (01/26/2010)
CPU IntelIntel Core i5-750 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 4 x 256KB L2 and 8MB L3 Cache, TDP 95W)
RAM DDR3 (dual)2 x 2GB DDR3-1600 (OCZ OCZ3G2000LV4GK); DDR3-1333 8-8-8-24 1T
Hard DriveWestern Digital VelociRaptor, 300GB (WD3000HLFS) 10,000 RPM, SATA/300, 16MB Cache
GraphicsSapphire Radeon HD 5850 GPU: Cypress (725 MHz); Graphics RAM: 1,024MB GDDR5 (2,000 MHz); Stream Processors: 1,440
Power SupplyPC Power & Cooling, Silencer 750EPS12V 750W
System Software & Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Ultimate X64 Updated 2010-02-11
Drivers and Settings
Intel Chipset DriversChipset Installation Utility Ver. 9.1.1.1025
ATI Graphics DriversRadeon Version 10.1

We used Gigabyte’s P55A-UD7, a Core i5-750 and Sapphire’s Radeon HD 5850 for this review.

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Application Benchmarks and Settings
BenchmarkDetails
7-ZipVersion 9.1 beta LZMA2 Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5"
Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload
PCMark VantageVersion 1.0.1.0
SYSmark Preview 2007Version 1.06
WinRARVersion 3.92 Beta 1 RAR Syntax "a -r -m3" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload
WinZip 14Version 14.0 Pro (8652) WinZip Commandline Version 3 ZIPX Syntax "-a -ez -p -r" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload