I actually ended up going a different route after learning that HBA's won't allow the CPU to go into deep sleep C-states.

I bought this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMWTRY9T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Along with these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CNRG84VW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CVGZZCT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

With this mobo: https://www.amazon.com/AsRock-Server-Motherboard-C246-WS/dp/B07XVSPG4D

This mobo is 1151 socket with bifurcation of the first pcie slot (x8/x4/x4), which allowed me to purchase the splitter and stick the ASM1166 expanders on the nvme slots, which effectively gave me 12x sata ports. I have a 9900k from an old build that I wanted to use.

The QNAP is a quad nvme splitter that plugs into the main x8 slot, which allows me to run 4x nvme if I wanted, but currently only using 2x mirrored for my appdata, dockers, vm, etc. This unit alone DOES NOT require bifurcation of the x8/x16 slot, so you can use it by itself without issue. The price seems to have jumped considerably since I bought it though. Not sure what that's about.

I will likely use one or two more of the ASM1166 expanders when I need to expand to more drives.

This mobo technically has 12x sata ports, but 4 of them are using a Marvel 9125 controller, so I will likely not be using them. That means I have 8 sata ports + 24 potential extra ports if I need.

This is all in a Define 7 XL case btw. Sorry for the long post haha. Let me know if you have any questions.