YouTuber wins Intel CPU for $3 in Japanese gachapon machine

YouTuber Sawarasan won an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU for around $3 in a Japanese gachapon vending machine, and it actually works.

If you’ve ever visited Japan, chances are you’ve heard of gachapon machines. Each machine contains small capsules, containing official anime figures, and merchandise. Yet, sometimes they contain something completely out of the ordinary, like Intel Core CPUs.

One Japanese YouTuber discovered the CPU gachapon machine while browsing the PC and electronics store, PC Ones in Osaka, Japan. In a video, the YouTuber Sawarasan reveals that while spending only 500 yen on the machine, the equivalent of $3.23 in the US, they won an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU.

Originally reported by Tom’s Hardware, the CPU was not only cheap but appeared to be functional too, even despite its time spent rattling around in a gachapon machine. YouTuber Sawarasan posted a video to their channel revealing their testing efforts, where the second-hand Intel Core CPU was able to run Windows. Though not without some bumps along the way.

Sadly, the YouTube video is only in Japanese and doesn’t have subtitles, so we can only speculate from the footage provided. In the video, Sawarasan can be seen putting the Intel Core i7-8700 CPU through its paces, by testing it with other PC parts. After attaching the CPU to a motherboard, BIOS does boot. However, the display can be seen struggling to run Windows, with the display visibly stuttering.

It appears that Sawarasan suspects the Intel Core i7-8700 CPU to have faults with some or more of its cores, which can’t exactly be surprising considering it’s an Intel Core CPU being sold for as little as $3.23 in a gachapon machine. However, the CPU does eventually manage to run Windows and survive testing through tools like Cinebench.

Intel Core i7-8700 CPUs sell for at least $80 on second-hand sites like eBay. Winning one for $3.23 is an absolute bargain, no matter its faults. However, the unique CPU gachapon is not something you’d likely find outside of Japan any time soon. If there’s a local Bandai Namco store near you, you’ll have to settle for cute anime gachapon prizes instead.