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Noctua’s new offset mounting bars improves NH-D15 G2 cooling on Intel Core Ultra CPUs

João Silva May 11, 2025 Cooling, Featured Tech News

Noctua continues to refine performance for its long-standing CPU coolers. This week, Noctua made the new NM-IMB8 offset mounting bars for the award-winning NH-D15 G2 flagship CPU cooler available. By offsetting the heatsink, the cooler is better suited for handling the hot spots, of newer Intel Core Ultra CPUs, such as the Core Ultra 9 285K or Core Ultra 7 265K.

Under heavy multi-core loads, Intel's 24- or 20-core LGA1851 processors shift their primary heat output, or ‘hotspot', towards the northeast side of the socket. The NM-IMB8 bars address this by offsetting the heatsink 3.7mm to the north and 2mm to the east, providing more concentrated contact pressure directly over this hotspot for enhanced thermal transfer.

The enhanced contact can lead to noticeable temperature drops. Noctua states temps can be lowered by up to 3°C when using the bars with the NH-D15 G2's HBC version, and up to 1°C with the regular NH-D15 G2. While the regular NH-D15 G2 typically performs slightly better than the HBC version without the offset, the regular D15 G2 combined with the NM-IMB8 remains Noctua's recommended choice for LGA1851, offering the best overall temperatures with and without the offset. Installation is simple, replacing the standard mounting bars while reusing the cooler's original spacers and screws.

It's crucial to note that the NM-IMB8 bars are only compatible with a specific list of Noctua coolers. This includes the NH-D15 G2 (regular, HBC, and LBC versions), NH-D12L, NH-L12S, NH-L12Sx77, and the NH-L12 Ghost S1 edition heatsinks. The NM-IMB8 mounting bars are available directly from Noctua's website starting today for a service charge of $3.90/€3.90 via a website form. They are also expected to become available on Amazon in 2/3 weeks, priced slightly higher at $4.90/€4.90.

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KitGuru says: Are you cooling an Intel Core 200K series CPU with a Noctua NH-D15 G2 CPU cooler? Are you planning on getting the offset bars to improve the cooler's performance?

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