Xeon Workstation Build HELP

[Rehmat]

Hi all. 

Have been looking at building a xeon based workstation. Will be trying to keep costs down as much as possible:

Here is the spec i am looking at:

xeon haswell/refresh or slightly older

i7 haswell/refresh

ddr3 1333mhz ecc if possible

gtx 750 or quattro

atx mobo [must have pcie 2 preferably]

case will probably be rack-mount

cpu cooler will be arctic 

fans will be arctic 120mm pwm fans

 

TBH i need help finding a xeon compatible atx mobo that has either pci x16 and pcie x8 or 2 pcie x8 and is affordable. I do not plan on overclocking as this will be running as a linux workstation. Dont mind buying the secondhand as i have done so in the past from reputable ebay sellers.  If anybody has experience with x56xx xeons as desktops then please let me know. Also x56xx xeon real world power consumption. I dont mind using x56xx xeons as i have a dell r710 virtualization server but would prefer going newer for future-proofing. 

 

Have seen  the Asus Z87-PLUS. Is this any good? Not done many pc build as i am more into server rackmount scene.

BTW i am uk based if that makes any difference.

Thanks

[brob]

Is the reason for using a Xeon ECC memory?

[Rehmat]

@brob no other than xeons are cheaper and offer simmilar performance to i7. Also ecc ram is cheap and this workstation will put put into sleep when not in use as opposed to shutdown so ram reliability is important