GA-EX58-UD4P: I have a few questions

I want to build a Core i7 rig and this Gigabyte board is on my short list along with the UD5 and the Asus P6T vanilla.

What I'd like to know:
1. Is Crossfire/SLI 16/16 possible if the 3rd PCIex16 slot has any card (not video card) inserted?
From the manual:

Does this mean it automatically drops to 16/8/8 or can it run 16/16/4, for example if I add a sound card?

2. The eSata bracket has two SATA connectors. From the pics, it looks like there is only ONE SATA signal cable and one SATA power cable.
Do I need to connect BOTH (ie use 2 SATA ports) or can I only use 1, for instance with a powered external enclosure? In other words, can I do 7 internal SATA + 1 eSATA or only 6 internal SATA + 2 eSATA?

3. Does the ICH10R controller support booting off a single drive (I'm looking at SSD) while also running a storage RAID array? (in my case 3x HDD in RAID5) If so, what BIOS setting do I need to use, ACHI or RAID?

4. Does the PCIEX4_1 connector support a full-length card? (for example a Xonar sound card)
I know that the PCIE_1_1 is restricted, the manual doesn't say anything about the PCIEX4_1 but from pictures it looks like there's a capacitor in the way... would it interfere?

Thanks for reading!