However I prefer to go with unbuffered, it's... easier to recycle elsewhere, and actually I always had a lot more trouble with compatibility with ecc modules than with unbuffered ones.
Do NOT confuse ECC with Registered. There are 4 DDR3/DDR4 variants, the standard common Unbuffered, Unbuffered + ECC, then Buffered/Registered and Buffered/Registered + ECC.
Theorically (I would love to see practical confirmations), you can potentially use Unbuffered + ECC anywhere (And even mix non-ECC and ECC modules), ECC just isn't used if there is no platform support for it, so they work as non-ECC. Buffered does need explicit support and they don't work on consumer platforms, chances are than that is why you weren't able to get them working. LGA 2011/2011-3 Xeons E5 support them, not sure if that socket Core i7s also does.
Rather interesing, Puget System got a Xeon with 256 GB Buffered + ECC
working on a consumer Motherboard (8 * 32 GB), so it seems that maybe only the Processor matters.
Also, if you're used to Supermicro, they have Workstation class Motherboards that comes with Audio and other standard consumer goodies. Its the Server ones that are totally dull. Check
X10SRA, or the X99 version,
C7X99-OCE. Both have a -F variation with IPMI.
Chances are that you can't touch anything to run out-of-spec in the X10SRA, while the X99 one does. But since Xeons don't have Unlocked Multiplier, chances are you wouldn't get anywhere with it since Base Clock overclock is extremely limited on Haswell/Haswell-E. Basically, forget overclocking.
Another two things to consider: The Xeon E5 2699V3 you want has a low base Frequency, is the sacrifice you do in order to have that many Cores. Turbo seems good, but since you won't find reviews of that 4000 U$D toy, you will have to research to figure out how often it kicks at that Frequency. Otherwise, Single Threaded performance and gaming would be much lower than a standard Desktop Processor 1/15 of its value, but chances are that a 2.2 GHz Haswell is still "good enough".
There is also an OEM version of the 2699V3 which is the 2696V3, its identical but around 1500-2000 U$D cheaper. Problem is that since its OEM you will find it only on eBay, and I'm not sure if they're production parts or Engineering Samples (There are a lot of ES on eBay), which may not work on all Motherboards, only specific ones and on earlier BIOS versions. You may want to research that.
Finally, I hope that you are a heavy virtualization user and are intending to do VGA Passthrough with such setup. May want to google around what it is and how to do it with Xen or KVM VFIO, it may suit the tastes of someone with 18 Cores and a truckload of RAM.
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