Hey Houserat, welcome to the wonderful world of MSI.
I see folks have been talking about me in my abstinence....I mean absence. Trust me no one is the master of the Neo2 because it's like mastering mush! I will try to say something intelligent, but it won't be easy.
First off you can increase your bandwidth modestly by using the 183 divider. It probably means loosening your timings, but it may not. Actually, my inferior PQI tccd will run 2.5 on the 183 divider at 9x282, but when I ran it higher than that I didn't have the 183 divider available to experiment with as it's only recently been in any Neo2 bios. Running at a higher MHz will usually get you more bandwidth. I don't know if you experimented with 1:1. Mine will get to 9x278 at 3-4-4-8 before giving up the ghost. Also, remember that I have a Winchester and that can change things. The only way to change most of those ram settings is with the A64 tweaker. BTW my tccd doesn't do it's best with weak dram strength.
As far as a booster goes, I have used one in this board with the xp90. The problem with slot 2 is no the cooler, but the lack of space between the slots. Not only that, but you couldn't see the voltage display or reach the knob to adjust the voltage if it was in slots 1 or 2 with an XP90. It really needs to be used in slot 4 and even that is a tight squeeze.
Lastly, the other NF3 boards are not vastly superior to the Neo2. The Epox seems to be the best, but it can't even use the DDR Booster and it's vdimm is limited to 2.8. It is a good overclocker, but it may not go much higher than where you are now.
And RAMMAN I'm not lazy just a wee bit tipsy, so I hope this all make sense.