Here’s one Japanese store’s enterprising method of selling broken Intel chips — for less than $5

Would you like to get your hands on an Intel CPU for less than 5% of its full cost? Of course, you would.

Too good to be true? Almost. This story centers on an enterprising electronics store that is selling chips from a Gacha machine. Instead of dispensing a small plastic toy in an egg-shaped bubble, this one provides you with a handy piece of Intel hardware.

As detailed by YouTuber Sawara-San, for the modest sum of 500 Yen (roughly $3.25), you can walk away with a CPU, or as many as you want to fill your pockets with.

Further testing and diagnosis using Windows Task Manager revealed the Intel chip, as with all others on display, comes with significant faults. The Intel Core i7-8700 was found to have just five working cores and 10 threads when an optimum piece should be fully equipped with six cores and 12 threads.

What is the point of selling broken Intel chips?

For the price, no one can complain. It is a bargain, even if you will be limited as to what you can do with the chip, whose full, unbroken version currently retails for around $200.

And it’s a handy way for retailers to recoup some spare cash, given the alternative is for the hardware to end up on the scrap heap. This solution won’t be a permanent one, but it isn’t supposed to be. Governments and big tech must answer the bigger questions on e-waste but if, meantime, a few chips can find a new home and a longer lifespan, they still serve a purpose.

The CPUs can also be quaint souvenirs, as it’s not every day that tech enthusiasts get their hands on one (or many) of these chips to do with as they please. It’s another novelty idea from vendors known for them, and maybe not one that interests everyone. Still, what a quirky, fun, and inexpensive way to sell broken Intel chips.

Image credit: Ideogram