Fancy a borked Intel CPU for just $3.25? This Japanese Gacha machine is just for you

A screengrab from a YouTube video showing a Japanese vending machine that dispenses faulty Intel CPUs — (Image credit: Sawara-San / cluster140)

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of building a wall display of dead hardware, so I can live out my fantasies of a house covered in futuristic greebles. This Japanese Gacha machine might be the cheapest way of getting hold of a large number of borked chips for my project, as it dispenses them for a mere $3.25 a go.

Located outside of a Japanese electronics store, this Gacha machine is the sort that usually dispenses a small toy in a plastic bubble (via Techspot). However, YouTuber Sawara-san has discovered that for a mere 500 Yen—equivalent to around $3.25—this one instead provides you with a CPU. In this case, the prize was an Intel Core i7-8700, although some later testing revealed that the chip, presumably like all the others in the machine, had some serious issues.

Still, for $3.25 you really can't complain, especially as you can still buy this particular model (fully functional, of course) for $200. Given that this vending machine appears to be located in a district full of electronics retailers, I would imagine that this is simply a way of making a bit of extra cash from damaged hardware by selling broken chips off as curiosities.

Given that e-waste is an ongoing issue, the idea of giving broken hardware a second life as an aesthetically pleasing, slightly desirable object is a pleasant one, if not perhaps a sustainable solution.

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While proper recycling of electronics hardware is still a difficult nut that we don't seem to have cracked, at the very least these chips have a chance of escaping landfill, and may even be cherished as interesting and thought-provoking objects.

After all, I can't be the only one to be fascinated by CPUs simply as objects of incredible design and manufacturing. Holding a chip in my hands and marvelling at the capabilities inside, never mind all the effort required to produce it is something I find immensely satisfying when constructing a PC build, and I think if I passed this machine on the street I'd end up buying quite a few for myself.

Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't—and he hasn't stopped since. Now working as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, Andy spends his time jumping around the world attending product launches and trade shows, all the while reviewing every bit of PC gaming hardware he can get his hands on. You name it, if it's interesting hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.