Ryzen CPUs up for grabs in lottery vending machines in Japan

What you need to know

• Vending machines in Japan give people a chance to win a Ryzen CPU.
• It costs roughly $9 to enter, and people have a 1-in-30 chance to win a Ryzen Zen 2 chip.
• None of AMD's Ryzen Zen 3 chips appear to be available through the machines.

People desperate to get their hands on a new CPU have a unique option at retailers in Nagoya Japan. As spotted by a Twitter user called Nullpo (via Tom's Hardware), some stores in Japan have vending machines that let people gamble for a chance to get a processor.

Despite how the machine looks, people can't just select which item they want and receive it. Instead, it's more like a lottery system. According to translated Twitter comments, people can purchase a ticket for 1,000 yen (around $9) and then have a chance to win different CPUs. The best CPU that seems to be available is a Zen 2 chip, which people have a 1-in-30 chance to win.

The boxes in the machine are for some of the best CPUs, such as the Ryzen 5 5000 Zen 3 and Ryzen 5 3000 Zen 2, but you can't actually win either of those processors. The boxes contain Zen and Zen 2 processors or Intel Athlon, Pentium, or Celeron chips. Hopefully that's clearly stated, or people will be disappointed when they open up one of the boxes.

A video shows the machine in action. It begins with a person wearing a panda costume on their head but eventually shows someone trying to win a Ryzen CPU with the lottery vending machine.

YouTube

Watch On

Before you get concerned about CPUs dropping like candy bars, the design of the machine appears to gently carry them down to be collected.