Hi Smaerg,
Here is a suggestion for you. Got to the Intel site and enter the DZ77GA-70K and look at the Bios Updates they show for that Mobo or any other one. The sometimes do a write up with this type of information in it. look there.
See if the spec. fot the board have anything there.
Hope this helps.
Papagym
Thanks for the reply Papagym.
I took a look at the latest BIOS updates PDF and there is a mention of password support being added to the Visual BIOS... However, I've heard reports in other threads that it may not support passwords in ACHI mode.
If there is anyone with this board that could check (or an Intel rep can confirm?), that would be a big help.
With the 0039 BIOS I have sata set for ACHI. In the security tab there are settings for "supervisor password, user password, master key hard drive password, hard drive password"
I don't have any security enabled, but if you want me to check for other settings or test something short of encrypting my drive I'd be happy to check it out and report back.
Thank you Addy711 - that is extremely helpful! 
Looks like I can safely go for this motherboard.
