Welcome to the Community,
first thing to learn is to know the important VMware web sites (i.e. http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl) 
With that said, the mentioned server model is not officially supported for vSphere 5 (although it might work). In addition to the server model, it is important that the components (e.g. the RAID controller) are supported too.
Anyway, for learning purposes, I would recommend you get a PC (e.g. I7-2600, 16GB RAM, HDD/SSD) and use VMware Workstation to setup a virtual vSphere environment. With this virtual environment you could configure multiple ESXi hosts as well as e.g. shared storage. And - in the end - a PC is usually less expensive, less noisy and does consume less power than the server hardware. You may take a look at e.g. Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab for an example to setup such an environment.
In addition to the required VMware Certified Professional (VCP) course and some hands on training, you may want to take a look at e.g. VCP5 VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 Study Guide: Exam VCP-510 which has just been released.
André