Dear customer,Congratulations on choosing the Noctua NH-D15.Built on the basis of the legendary NH-D14 and carrying on itsquest for ultimate quiet cooling performance, our flagship modelNH-D15 is an eliteclass dual tower cooler for the highestdemands. I’m confident that you will be able to sense some of theresearch, attention and care we’ve put into making this cooler.Enjoy your NH-D15!Yours sincerely,Roland Mossig, Noctua CEOThis manual will guide you through the installation process of theSecuFirm2™ mounting system step by step.Prior to installing the cooler, please consult the compatibility liston our website (www.noctua.at/compatibility) and verify that thecooler is fully compatible with your motherboard. Please also makesure that your PC case offers sufficient clearance for the cooler andthat there are no compatibility issues with any other components(e.g. tall RAM modules). Double check that the heatsink and fanclips do not make contact with the VGA card or other PCIe cards.Noctua cannot be held responsible for any damage or losses causedby compatibility issues.Should you encounter any difficulties, please check the FAQs on ourwebsite (www.noctua.at/faqs) and don’t hesitate to contact our sup-port team at support@noctua.at.Multilingual versions of this manual are available on ourwebsite: www.noctua.at/manualsRequired mounting parts:2x NM-IMB2 bounting bars1x NM-IBP2 backplate4x NM-ITS1 thumb screws4x NM-IPS1 spacersNoctua NH-D15 | Installation Manual | LGA115xLGA115xCaution: The supplied backplate will install over the motherboard’sstock backplate, so the motherboard’s stock backplate must notbe taken off.Attaching the backplate2Place the backplate on the rear side of the motherboard so that thebolts stick through the mounting holes.Caution: Please make sure that the three cut-outs in thesupplied backplate align with the screws of the motherboard’s stockbackplate.First put the NM-IPS1 plastic spacers onto the bolts of the back-plate, then add the NM-IMB2 mounting bars.Installing the mounting bars3Caution: Choose the alignment of the mounting bars according to thedesired final orientation of the cooler:Orientation A Orientation BIn case you want to use the cooler on an assembled system andyour case doesn’t have a cut-out at the rear side of the motherboardtray, you first have to remove the motherboard from the case inorder to be able to install the supplied backplate.Removing the motherboard1Caution: Make sure that the curved sides of the mounting bars arepointing outwards.Fix the mounting bars using the 4 thumb screws.Caution: Gently tighten the screws until they stop, but don’t useexcessive force (max. torque 0.6 Nm).If there are residual traces of thermal paste or thermal pads on yourCPU, please clean them off first. Then press a small drop (4-5mmdiameter) of NT-H1 onto the centre of the heatspreader.Applying the thermal pasteCaution: Applying too much thermal paste will lower heatconductivity and cooling performance!4