I am thinking about full drive encryption on a cheap micro notebook (the 10 inch EEPC w/ Windows) that I bought for a trip to Africa and to use whiile Sony reinvents its recalled TZ line. (Hopefully with affordable gen 2x solid state drives).

My question is whether such encryption will take much oompph out of my already undercharged processor. Don't get me wrong, the machine peppy enough right now, but I am afraid that this will be the equivalent of hitching an oversized trailer to a moderately powered six cylinder.

I'm also debating between using Truecrypt's new encryption engine (and what encryption to go with) or to pop with or to pop for Ultimaco's safeware. I bought this program for my wife's personal notebook because her company issued laptoop uses the same program and she sometimes takes her personal notebook on business trips instead of the company one. I figured if something happened, matching their encryption would stop the company from screaming too much about the security risks. I like the program, but it is expensive.

Opinions?