Per http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl hardware is supported for both 5.0 and 5.1
Unless I read this incorrectly you are deploying 200+ servers?
If that's the case you might want to try out auto deploy
http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/10/vsphere-5-1-auto-deploy-overview-videos.html
Also 5.1 has a couple of changes you need to be aware of in terms of VC. A read of 5.0 and 5.1 featuresets would help you with which version would be right for you.
Regards
a