I'm about to setup a Samsung 840 EVO SSD as the system drive with Windows 8.1 Pro, attached to an Asus P8Z68-V Pro mobo (which doesn't have a TPM). I'll also attach a Western Digital Black HDD for extra storage (no hardware encryption). I know I can enable Bitlocker without the TPM by editting group policy settings.
1st question: Without the TPM, will it still enable Samsung's hardware encryption, or will it be software encryption only? And is the answer conditional upon using Samsung Magician?
2nd question: Assuming I can enable the hardware encryption on the SSD via Bitlocker, will it then use software encryption when writing to the HDD? Is Bitlocker smart enough for that? :p