WD7500L12X (750GB + 16GB SSD) really exist?

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

A computer store offers me  a new  WD7500L12X, which is a hybrid 750GB (5400 rpm) HDD + 16GB SSD for only $50 but with only 1 month warranty.

I tried to find this model information in the internet, but I could not find any official information about this drive.

Even WD does not have this model listed !!!

Searching the internet, I could find some sellers in HK & China (also Ebay)  selling this drive with very limited warranty lilke  this site:

http://disctech.com/Western-Digital-WD7500L12X-750GB-SATA-SSD

Here is the complete spec:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=40681409149

The photo:

http://img04.taobaocdn.com/bao/uploaded/i4/T1C8ZNFTpXXXXXXXXX_!!0-item_pic.jpg

Further research led me to this page, where it shows the Crystaldiskmark performance of the drive  (1-2 pagedown under VAIO FIT 14A ):

http://sonyshop-ones.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2013-12-31

Is that really the performance of  this hybrid drive ???    Only around 100MB/s read,  and 65MB write ?

Looks like a 5400 drive performance  without SSD cache at all.

Is this a problematic product that fails to launch because of some issue?

For $50 , it is so tempting,  but the lack of information from WD and the very limited warranty makes me wonder if it is just a scam.

Any advise ?

2
  • merged above -
3

The drive that we currently see that offers both HDD and SSD is this one:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1190#Tab3

Not seeing the one you mention at the moment.

You can contact our online store for more information.

http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/ContentTheme/pbPage.contactus/ThemeID.21986300/Currency.USD

4

A warranty check against the serial number produces an unusual (?) result:

http://websupport.wdc.com/warranty/serialinput.asp?custtype=end&requesttype=warranty

There is no expiration date, no product name, the status is “No Limited Warranty” rather than “Out of Limited Warranty”, and there is a crossed icon rather than a tick.

That said, I can’t recognise any inconsistency between the markings on the label and those on the PCB. For example, “WDT-1940” and “R/N:771940” both match the “2060-771940” on the board. The DCX number, E(J)03(T)84(E)6, also matches the model number suffix, 55(JTE)T0.

The “55” in the model number would suggest that the drive may be an OEM model, but that isn’t reflected in the warranty check.

See http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/doc.pc3000dos/060713.001/WD-main-N-2.pdf

Here are the warranty search results for the serial number, plus the previous and next serial numbers.

https://wdsupport.wdc.com/warranty/warrantycheck2.asp?req=2981910&rnd=09136927
crossed icon
WX41xxxxxxx6
WD7500L12X-55JTET0
no product name
No Limited Warranty

https://wdsupport.wdc.com/warranty/warrantycheck2.asp?req=2982034&rnd=08494837

tick icon
WX41xxxxxxx5
WD10SPCX-08HWST0
1 TB WD Blue Hard Drive
Out of Limited Warranty

https://wdsupport.wdc.com/warranty/warrantycheck2.asp?req=2982057&rnd=373193602

crossed icon
WX41xxxxxxx7
WD10S12X-55JTET0
no product name
No Limited Warranty

5

Well, I took the plunge & bought it.  It arrived this morning.

It was identical to  the one I showed in my 1st post here:

http://img04.taobaocdn.com/bao/uploaded/i4/T1C8ZNFTpXXXXXXXXX_!!0-item_pic.jpg

But mine is dated 13 Sep 2013.

Seemingly brand new.  No dust or anything.   Smart values 100% like new drive (0 read errors, etc). 

So, how do I feel after buying it ?     It’s a roller coaster feeling, I must say.    Read why.

I cloned a Dell 1558’s OS partition to this new hybrid drive and gave it a boot.

Slow…just like a normal hdd.  Hmm…maybe 3-4 reboot just like they say.

Same result…slow, no improvement.   Hmm what happened ???  Is the SSD-cache component not working ?    (A rushing thought passed my mind …it’s cheap & you took the bait" 

I researched a little bit on the internet about WD Hybrid SSD.   Not much info , only some articles in hardware sites mentioning  new hybrid HDD  from WD  as an answer for   “Seahorse” Momentus XT.   The article has photo similar to the  one showed by Taobao reseller (or my local store).  It also mentioned about  8GB, 16GB, 24GB SSD cache depending on WD’s model.  So, this thing must be real !    
But why slow like normal hdd in my test ??
So, I read a litle more until I read one site mentionng the difference between Seahorse’s hardware approach vs WD’s software approach.   Another site’s interview with WD manager caught my attention.   He said WD’s hybrid  SPECIAL DRIVER to make it work, and the drive is only available for OEM.
I said to myself “So, that’s why it’s so cheap”.  No driver = normal hdd =  no SSD caching.  I got scammed !!!  

I just bought  a 5400-rpm 750GB HDD with 1-month warranty for $50.    Not too much a bad deal, but not a great either.

I thought the driver must only be available to OEM, and they customize it  for their system.

WD site does nott even have it listed in their product offerings, so how could I ever expect they would provide a driver ?.

At least that’s what I thought !!!

Searching WD support Download section, and I found  WD Black SSHD available software.  There I found WDBoost_3.34.433.74.exe.   :smileyvery-happy:
I downloaded & installed .  The driver setup recognizes my drive as WD7500L12X  .  GREAT.

First reboot after driver setup…no boot speed  improvement.

Second reboot…seems faster  (or is it just my feeling?)

Third reboot…hmmm it’s not my imagination. It is faster.

Fourth reboot…definitely much faster than a normal HDD, I said.

BOOTRACER results:

Corsair Force 3 SSD 120GB :  21 secs

WD7500L12X  750GB Hybrid drive  ( without WDBoost ) :   47 secs

WD7500L12X 750GB Hybrid drive  ( with WDBoost )  :   23 secs    :smiley:

Note:  the drive was tested with Dell 1558 (with a bunch of Dell’s softwares at startup) ,  HM55 chipset,  SATA2 only.  This chipset is known to prevent SSD from running at optimal speed.  

At this point, I was ecstatic.  This is only for $50  I spent.     Even much cheaper than other resellers on Ebay / Aliexpress/Taopao who sells the same drive for $75-79.99.   I think I could dance.   :wink:

 For comparison,  “Seahorse” Momentus XT 1TB (8GB SSD)  is priced at $125  here.

Playing it a while, and I noticed I lost a large chuck of my 8GB memory.

Usually I have 5.9 GB memory available.   Now…only 4GB.   ???  :angry:

The only change I made was installing WDBoost, so I uninstalled it, and…back to 5.9 - 6GB available memory.

What is going on ???   :confounded:

I researched on the net, and I found the answer in this own forum here:

http://community.wd.com/t5/Desktop-Mobile-Drives/WDC-WD10S12X-55JTET0-Driver-leak/td-p/659429

It  appears  WDBoost driver will always “rob”  2GB of your memory when it’s installed.

I could not believe this…2 GB of system memory  just to run this hybrid drive alone ?

Come on WD !!!  Tell me this is a joke.

If it has to use 2GB of system memory for host caching, then what is the purpose of having 16GB SSD  inside ?

I share my sentiment with Javapraca  in that thread.

Now, I know why it is $75 cheaper than “the other”'s offering   :cry:

Oh yeah, my serial also shows :

crossed icon
WX41xxxxxxx6
WD7500L12X-55JTET0
no product name
No Limited Warranty

6

Just to update with my test result.

In the other thread, WD support through MSI replied :

2014-02-20 5:07 GMT+01:00, MSI OCSS msihelp@msi.com:
> Ticket: WD BoostContent: Dear Customer,
>
> I got the answer from WD who inform us it is normal.Because WD Boost driver
> has three caching tiers (HostCache System DRAM -> SSHD Flash Storage
> -> SSHD Disk Storage) to optimize overall system performance. Host _
_ > caching will dynamically allocate/de-allocate system memory in response to _
_ > application demands. Thanks!

This is NOT TRUE.   
I have just tested by removing 1 memory module & boot  using only 4GB memory.

As soon as Win7 x64’s boot into Windows & the desktop show up,  Windows gave me a LOW MEMORY warning.

FREE MEMORY:  414 MB

AVAILABLE MEMORY:  224 MB

This is just a fresh boot into Windows without opening any application.

So, the claim that the Host caching will dynamically allocate/de-allocate system memory  is A LIE.

So, BEWARE guys !!!

I think this is a DUMPED product from OEM to sellers in Ebay, taopao or other internet sites.

It’s a major product failure.

At least my curiosity was answered.  I’m going to use this drive as data drive (without WDboost, hence ignoring the SSD part) while maintaining my 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD as my main boot drive.