Yikes! 3-Pin Molex tailed?? WTF?

[showhost]

I'm a newbie so please be gentle....

Okay, I'm trying to find a decent HS/F combo an to cool an Athon 1700 XP
(that won't be overclocked). I'm looking at the Swiftech MCX462 and want
to buy and acceptable fan to attach. So I started looking at Panaflos
(Plycon.com & Sidewinders) and discovered an "option" called 3-Pin Molex tailed/untailed.

What does this mean? I thought you just bought a fan and
clipped it onto the HS. Also, where does it plug into -- the mobo?
And would anyone recommend this combo?

(Panaflo FBA09A12H1BX 12V DC, V. Range 7-13.5V, 2.70W, 56.9CFM, 3.98(mmH2O), 35.0dBA)

Also, what is a "shim" used for?

Larry

 

[chopstxxx]

Most panaflos come untailed, i.e. bare leads. To connect the fan to your motherboard you need the 3-pin molex connector. If you aren't going to overclock you don't really need such an expensive heatsink. Look into the Thermaltake Volcano 7. You can get it for around 18 dollars at case-mod.com. A shim is used to protect the CPU. It isn't necessary, but if you wanna be extra safe and are afraid that you'll crack your cpu core when installing the heatsink, you might want to consider one.