There's a capsule toy machine in Japan that spits out Intel Core i7-8700 CPUs for around $3

Capsule toy vending machines, or 'gacha' machines, can be found all over Japan. They dispense random toys and collectibles for a small fee, with themed machines covering everything from popular anime franchises to Hello Kitty to stuff as simple and pure as dinosaur toys. Now, we can add Intel CPUs to the list, as someone has spotted a capsule toy machine in Japan that dispenses random Intel CPUs.

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A toy capsule machine full of old Intel CPUs, image credit: Sawara-San/YouTube.

Over on X, user @LaurieWired posted a link and YouTube clip from Sawara-San (which is in Japanese) showing that they managed to snag an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU for just 500 Yen (which is around $3 USD) from this CPU Gacha machine. The machine is located outside 1's PC, a store that sells new and second-hand PC parts and things like cameras.

The Intel Core i7 8700 is not that old, with the eighth-generation Coffee Lake from 2018 closely matching the performance of the flagship Intel Core i7 8700K. It's old by 2024 standards for mid-range CPUs, but for around $3, it's a bargain. It's a 6-core 12-thread CPU with a 4.7 GHz Boost Clock - not too shabby. Except, this random 'gacha' version ran into issues.

It turns out it was faulty, which makes sense - the store is filling the toy capsule machine with faulty hardware, which is more collectible than ready-to-use. In testing the Intel Core i7-8700 CPU, it failed to install Windows initially but did fine when limiting the CPU to a 5-core 10-thread configuration. With Sawara-San able to run Windows and complete Cinebench benchmarks, this Intel Core i7 8700 CPU fell short of hitting the heights of a fully working CPU - but is still a great find.

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