@NathanC Yes so I understand that TPM is a chip relating to hardware-based encryption the question was "Is TPM the thing I need?" which I have now simplified to "what is the feature I need?" so as not to confuse people by making the question about TPM somehow. Thanks for your help!

Thank you this makes a lot of sense and it sounds like SuperUser would have been a better starting point.

@HopelessN00b You already did a really good job of letting me know you think my question is low quality. I've seen the responses other people have gotten from Samsung and they are complete unsatisfactory so I have no intention of wasting my time there. Surely there is a site with people who have experience using the encryption on these drives where "Halp how do I encrypt my drive and whats TPM" will be on topic.

I think SuperUser would be a really good fit, can you explain why they may punt it and where you would ask the question if it was yours?

That make's a lot of sense, I believe it is on-topic but instead of debating about it I'll ask to have it moved once I figure out where it might be better received