Buying a TZ: how useful is TDM?

Hi all,

I'm planning to buy a Vaio TZ within the next couple of days. I live in Japan, so I have a bunch of custom options to choose from. I'm wondering whether I should get the TPM chip and fingerprint scanner.

Here are my questions:
- Can you enable/disable them as often as you like?
- Is the drive/data encrypted so that it is impossible to access without providing a password/fingerprint at boot time as well as when coming out of sleep mode?

The TPM chip is certainly cheap enough (¥5,000/$50), but I've been reading the EFF's position on Trusted Computing and do feel a little uncomfortable about it. Still, I will be using this laptop mainly for working on client data, so if it's significantly more convenient than a software encryption solution I'm willing to consider it.

*I originally posted this in the "what notebook should I buy?" forum, but given the lack of response, I think you guys would be more knowledgeable on this point. I would really appreciate any advice you could give me!

 

Hi Hamodachi:

The TPM can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS menu, as far as I know.

I have the TZ150 US version.