Yes (in theory, i don't own it to say for sure but very likely, it was a version to do that exactly). But you lose one fan and the AM4 mount, so it would requiere spending more for having access to the 1st pcie slot.visper wrote:Would the NH-D15S be offset enough not to block the first x1 PCIe slot?
That's up to you, and i agree with you, but this will increase the cost into getting the S version + AM4 mount (if you buy it new you can get it for free) and maybe adding the extra fan, so its a luxury that only your wallet can decide. I personally like to use this place for soundcards and lan cards but the new 10ge cards now use 4x so its losing its appeal, but now a days a lot of manufacturers are starting to drop this slot in favor of placing a very long m.2 ssd, this tendency is growing more and more in newer motherboards.visper wrote:Actually, I considered running a NH-D15 without the front fan, since I found one locally without any fans for the same price as the Arctic Freezer. But losing a slot bothers me a bit, even if I don't intend to use it right now.
Now one experience that might or not be worth it, as i cant say for sure that your will be the same, on my AsRock X399 Taichi i used a NH-U14 TR4 (like D15), i was expecting the first pcie (16x) to be blocked but no, i can place a GPU even with a backplate, its very close but still clears fine (and i didn't use the offset on the mounting arms), a lot depends on where the manufactuer placed the CPU socket. You should try to to look for builds with AsRock X370 Taichi + NH-D15 to try to guess how it will end up.
I found a couple of pictures on different builds that kinda confirms that it will overlap with the 1st pcie slot.