Hi Caddo,
I am also thinking about the same mobo and RAM memory for my esxi 5.1 / hyper-v 3 home server !
Did you already buy the X79 Extreme 6 ? Is the SATA controller working ?
For the NIC you need an driver for what I've been reading right now..
Check this link : Devolfamily » Blog Archive » ESXi 5.1 whitebox
Hope to hear from you...
Thanks!
Hartge