How concerned are the 49ers about the noise level inside Seattle's Qwest Field? On Wednesday, they pumped artificial crowd noise through huge speakers. A lot of teams do that before road games in loud venues. But the 49ers were even blasting noise during their morning walk-through.

Of course, most of the 49ers are quite familiar with the Seahawks' home-field advantage and know how loud Seattle's so-called "12th Man" can get. But two key 49ers are not familiar. First-round draft picks Anthony Davis, at right tackle, and Mike Iupati, at left guard, will start Sunday, and Mike Singletary acknowledged they have no idea what's in store.

"I think for our young guys, the two young guys, we need to get them all the noise that we can feed them, and that's not even enough, but as much as we can today, tomorrow and Friday," Singletary said. "We want to hopefully have them acclimated when we go into the game and be ready to respond to the noise that they haven't heard before, nor will they hear here."

The noise factor could be an equalizer for Pete Carroll's young Seahawks team, which has been reshuffling its roster right up to the last minute. Carroll has concentrated on high-energy practices since arriving in Seattle. And the euphoria that a new regime brings to its first-ever game might make Qwest Field even louder than normal.

"They've done that consistently over the years, and with that first-game excitement and buildup, there's no question this crowd is going to be off their seats and helping every way they can," Carroll said. "I'm anxious to see them in the regular season. They were terrific in the preseason. I can only imagine how pumped they'll be when it comes time for Sunday's game."

The 49ers decided early on that Davis and Iupati were more talented than their veteran counterparts. They promoted them to the first-string offensive line after the first week of training camp, and both typically played well into the third quarter of the 49ers' preseason games. Both also have gotten progressively better every time they have taken the field.

The move to start the rookies, however, mostly was geared to the second half of the season. The 49ers figure that Davis and Iupati will be acclimated to the NFL just as the team is making its push to the playoffs.

The first half of the season is a riskier proposition. In addition to a road game in Seattle, they also play in Kansas City, which has another loud outdoor stadium, and in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. The eighth game of the season will be at 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London.

Iupati played at Idaho. Davis is from Rutgers. The loudest facility Davis has played in? That was last year when the Scarlet Knights visited Syracuse's Carrier Dome.

The attendance that day: 36,759

SERIES HISTORY
23rd regular-season meeting. Seahawks lead, 12-10. The teams have split their season series the last two years. The Seahawks ended the 49ers' playoff hopes last year when Olindo Mare kicked a 30-yard field goal as time expired, giving Seattle a 20-17 victory.

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