Which CPU and Motherboard?

[Tabby]

I'm looking for help/advice for building a a headless home server from scratch, esp. CPU and motherboard related. I'm getting lost between all the options I run into (Intel vs AMD, Xeon vs Core, LGA 1151 or 2011, ...). I'm hoping for something cheap (all in all $500-700ish), and it should be quiet and consume low power. I think (wrongly perhaps) that it's best to get a future proof CPU and motherboard with enough extensibility options (I can update RAM, SSD, PSU, etc. later as needed).

 

From my searchings so far, I'm contemplating a Xeon E5-2670 + Intel BOXDX79TO MB (total about $283) or Xeon E5-2660 (x2) +  ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 MB (total about $487).

• Would either of these would be a good config / setup?
• Or might I be better served going for a Xeon E3-12xx (v5 or v6)? Or a Core CPU?

 

I intend to use this to try out things and learn as I go ahead (but not for gaming).

Initially the idea is to use it for home media aspects, home automation and security, run my own "DropBox storage" / VPN / web server / email server, and some programming and data storage, processing, and analytics etc. Eventually I might try more intensive things like Machine Learning (e.g. NLP and real time video/image processing), bitcoin/ethereum mining, etc. But these will later need dedicated GPUs if I go that far.

I appreciate your wisdom and insights! Thanks!