I've resolved the memory issue. Turned out to be my misunderstanding.
But one of the PCI slots is still not functioning. Not sure how that happened because it worked once before, and hadn't touched till yesterday. It's not a deal breaker (at least I have the other PCI slot working) but certainly is unpleasant. Will see if it comes back to life. But other than that, everything has been worked out.
After all these frustrating/rewarding moments, I finally settled at following settings:
CPU: 3.60GHz (9x400) / 1.51875V (est. 1.47~1.48V)
Memory: 1100MHz|4-4-3-9-2T (Unlinked) / 2.325V (est. 2.40~2.42V)
Only other thing I might tinker with is getting 1T to work when a decent BIOS comes out.
Overall I don't regret the switch from 975X and the board is overall very solid. It may not be as snappy as 975X, but the build quality seems higher than that of P5W-DH, its layout is near perfect, very versatile and feature-packed (sans eSATA) and it gives me the possibility of SLI in the future, so I'm satisfied. And I know I can rely on EVGA's RMA. (Advanced RMA rocks!) Can't say the same for ASUS.
If I were to give advice for other users: Everyone will have moments while trying to squeeze more performance out of this board, but in any case, KEEP THIS BOARD COOL. This board is one of the hottest boards I've ever dealt with. (No wonder ASUS had to resort to such bizzare heatpipe mess) Not only the SPP/MCB, but also other spots including VRM. Erroneous voltage/temp readings in the BIOS don't help either. Keep good airflow inside the case and, if possible, employ active cooling on board's hottest spots.
Good luck!