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MagyarIntel processors from the Gacha vending machine: Japanese store sells random CPUs for $3
Japan very much has an obsession with gacha machines, into which customers can insert money to win random prizes. Japanese computer store PC 1's has now applied this trend to its own business model, packing Intel processors into one of these machines, as Japanese YouTuber cluster140 discovered.
The machine takes 500 yen, the equivalent of $3.23. After inserting the money and turning the big wheel, the machine spits out an Intel processor in a transparent plastic package. The catch here is that the processor the customer receives is random. The store is clearly using this machine to rid itself of old inventory that hardly any customers are interested in.
Not only old Pentium and Celeron chips are in the vending machine, as cluster140 was able to extract an Intel Core i7-8700 out of the machine on the first attempt a year ago, which still costs around $200 on the open market. The Coffee Lake S chip from 2017 might now be a little outdated, but with six cores and twelve threads as well as boost clock frequencies of up to 4.6 GHz, the chip is still an attractive option for a budget gaming PC for just $3.
However, a brief test of the chip revealed that Gacha is a gamble after all, as one of the six CPU cores was defective and the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 had problems powering a monitor. Either way, this particular Gacha vending machine is cleverly located, because as photos on Google Maps show, the store has an enormous inventory so that customers can directly buy the remaining components around their winning CPU and build a cheap PC.
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