News Intel CPU-dispensing vending machine game spotted in Japan — one user got a Core i7-8700 for $3

[Admin]

There are capsule toy 'vending' machines in Japan that dispense Intel CPUs. One user acquired an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU after inserting 500 Yen (around $3.25) and twisting the familiar knob. The CPU had some issues but appears to work after disabling one core.

Intel CPU-dispensing vending machine game spotted in Japan — one user got a Core i7-8700 for $3 : Read more

 

[artk2219]

Nice, even if its got a gimpy core, its still a very decent cpu for 3 bucks. I'd throw that into a cheap nas, media center pc, or a computer for a relative for sure.

 

[JamesJones44]

I'm impressed that it works with a dead core. I would have figured something in the interconnects would cause some kind of an issue with a non-responsive core. However, it makes sense Intel (and likely others) would design it to be dead core tolerant, that way they can sell bad parts as lower variants without having to do much beyond changing the firmware (disable one working core and sell it as a i3-8300 for example).

 

[m3m7uk]

and my main rig is running an i7 8700. perhaps it's time to upgrade.

 

[m3m7uk]

I'm impressed that it works with a dead core. I would have figured something in the interconnects would cause some kind of an issue with a non-responsive core. However, it makes sense Intel (and likely others) would design it to be dead core tolerant, that way they can sell bad parts as lower variants without having to do much beyond changing the firmware (disable one working core and sell it as a i3-8300 for example).

that's pretty much how it's always been done. processors are made in sheets, then separated and tested. the ones that work but start to return errors at a certain speed, are ranked accordingly.
meaning, they always knew a lot of them weren't going to work completely, and had plans to use the ones that only partially worked.

 

[alixzibit]

For 3 dollars you don't even get a decent MCU let alone a CPU with 5c10t. That is a steal and makes me envious, as I look at my current available options for used CPUs

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

that's pretty much how it's always been done. processors are made in sheets, then separated and tested. the ones that work but start to return errors at a certain speed, are ranked accordingly.
meaning, they always knew a lot of them weren't going to work completely, and had plans to use the ones that only partially worked.

The curious bit to me is that normally you'd have to test disabling each core individually. It's not clear whether the person actually did that, or just used the BIOS to set it to five active cores. Any one of the six cores could be faulty, and not all motherboards even let you specify which core(s) get disabled. But, working at all is nice.

 

[vree]

and my main rig is running an i7 8700. perhaps it's time to upgrade.

Im still using a 10700k on my main, imo the single core performance still holds up rather well. But ye I slowly look forward to upgrading aswell

 

[OneMoreUser]

A Core i7-8700!!
Am I the only one who thinks winning a piece of candy is better?

 

[artk2219]

A Core i7-8700!!
Am I the only one who thinks winning a piece of candy is better?

Hah, im sure you're not, but you could definitely spend 3 dollars and get much worse.

 

[OneMoreUser]

Hah, im sure you're not, but you could definitely spend 3 dollars and get much worse.

The thing is, how much use is an old CPU.
Sure, if you're for some reason building a discount build only how often do you do that. While it was once so that not everyone had a computer, so putting old parts together to decent systems was once very welcome - but now nobody is really interested.
Same thing we when do a generational upgrade at work, everyone once loved being allowed to buy the old gear for pennies. Now, it is rare to being able to offload things - the only exception being old work stations that sees a few being interested.

 

[artk2219]

The thing is, how much use is an old CPU.
Sure, if you're for some reason building a discount build only how often do you do that. While it was once so that not everyone had a computer, so putting old parts together to decent systems was once very welcome - but now nobody is really interested.
Same thing we when do a generational upgrade at work, everyone once loved being allowed to buy the old gear for pennies. Now, it is rare to being able to offload things - the only exception being old work stations that sees a few being interested.

I have to say i'll have to disagree on this, I do maybe 3 or 4 sales a month on gaming pc's, not all of which would be considered cutting edge. Maybe its the market that im in, but the demand is definitely still there.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

A Core i7-8700!!
Am I the only one who thinks winning a piece of candy is better?

As noted elsewhere, the going rate for an i7-8700 is around $90. So, you could sell this partially defective CPU for at least $50~$60 I would think. Then you could buy 20X as much candy as $3 would get you. 😛

 

[Order 66]

I wonder what other CPUs are in this vending machine. I can't help but imagine someone paying $3 and getting a 14900ks with 6 performance cores and 14 efficiency cores still working. (arbitrary number) although, I'm actually not sure if that's possible, considering intel doesn't have a 26 thread 14th gen CPU.