Big CPU fan and noise reduction

[Zang]

I just got my SLK-800 yesterday, along with my Vantec Tornado 80mm fan. This baby is loud, and I knew that when I got it. I wanted it so that I could properly OC my 2500+ Barton I'm getting soon. But right now, I have it running on an Athlon XP 1800+ around 45C after a good 2-3 hours of gaming.

Now, I am looking for some kind of material or padding, something that I can put inside, or outside of my case to absorb some of the noise being spit out by the box.

 

[Egrimm]

Such padding does not help much, only a few db at most. My system with 3x 37db fans didn't get noticably more silent unles you listened really concentrated, they were not as loud as the Tornado but still far from silent.
You will get a much better result noise-wise from 7-volting the fan or controlling it by a rheobus or similar, but then you will loose some of the cooling ability too obviusly. If you want a high performance fan you will get a high noise-level and you cannot really do anything about it.