How safe would it be to run my q6600 without a heatsink or fan just to see if it starts up and all OK. I should be getting a CPU cooler tomorrow, but curiosity is killing me and I want to know everything should be alright.

Good chance you will kill it. Note that this is different from removing a hsf from an already-running CPU, because right at startup, IIRC there is a delay before the thermal throttling/shutdown circuitry starts working.

ahh thank you. any reccomendations on a good but cheap fan?

A full blown hsf will heatup to average running temp in less then a minute, without a hsf just getting to post will most likely either cause a quick shutdown, if things are configured properly, or it will burn it up.

Either way, if you plan on doing that be prepared to dishout money for a new processor.

What do you want to do exactly? An experiment or are you just trying to make sure it works before going through all the work of putting the hsf on? I would suggest just putting it on, odds are it won't work correctly anyway without it. So either way, its not worth it.

curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case your brand new q6600 cpu

Fans? The cheapest are Yateloons 120mm fans, costing as low as $3 each. They are of good quality.

sure it will shut down in 12-25 seconds

On my old Athlon - different heat management I know - I turned it on without the hsf by accident... black screen, wouldn't post, but fans all spinning inside. Spent about 20 seconds with it on wonder what was wrong, then opened it up and saw the bear cpu (hsf must have got knocked off in transit). Re-attached the hsf and all okay after that!

If you do try it - let us know what happens. I am not convinced it would kill the CPU but I won't be deliberately trying it with my current cpu myself though.

The processor has a heat spreader - the hard part is done for you, and it wont kill itself instantly. So if you were curious and a bit crazy... heres how you would manage it for a short period of time - little bit of thermal compound, and something flat and prefereably aluminum or copper. An old heatsink from any computer would do. With the system laid out on the table, set your maguyver heatsink on there, press it down with a fair amount of pressure. set up the system to turn on, put your hand back on the heatsink, then turn it on. The moment you start feeling your hand get warm, is when you shall be turning it back off - and wala, curiosity killed nobody.

If you just want to test the CPU, why not use the stock Intel HSF?

Let me guess. You already have the mobo in the case. Bad idea. Put the mobo onto a flat surface, on top of the antistatic bag it came in. That way, when you push down on the hsf to seat it, you will not be bending down the mobo, like a bow with the arrow notched. It also takes less preasure that way.

This has to be one of those "hold my sign, I wouldn't wanna lose it" moments. Just don't do it dude, it aint worth what could happen.