8700 has Z87 chipset.  

• Total # of SATA Ports6
• Max # of SATA 6.0 Gb/s Ports6

your stock psu has only 4 sata power connectors if you need more you can use sata power splitter. sata hdd uses little power.  The average HDD needs between 6 and 15 Watts of power. six hdd max 90w.

Yes I have sufficient power (I have a couple spliters Y cables) I believe 15 pin. What I'm referring to are the "SATA cables" I assume for data with like 7 pin. There are 2 for optical drives, 3 for SATA on my mother board. They sell PCIe cards, in 2, 4, and 6 port for SATA cables. But I've seen where they caution as to how many total the motherboard can support. If I understand your answer of "Total # of SATA 'ports' 6, that I assume would limit the PCIe card to having 2 ports, correct? 

8700 Bios has sata #1-5 + mSATA.   That is already 6 max.

The AIC card has its own sata controllers.

"+ mSATA" I'm sorry I do not follow. 
I only see 2, and next line 3. 
As far as the AIC? Is that the PCIe card? 
If so how many ports are allowed (or supported) by the mainboard/motherboard?
Or are you saying that is supported independently on its own merit? 

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@evd45 wrote:

I have an XPS 8700 that I'm quickly lacking SATA ports for internal drives. What is the largest PCIe SATA card will this mother board support?

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This one worked for me :

PCIe SATA-Controller

I don't see any reason it would not work for you. See my post here, dated 6-5-2022

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R1-Deluxe-Remote-Power-Switch-install/m-p/8213176/highlight/true#M59427

The SATA and drive options in a machine's BIOS are only for it's own on-board controllers. Those have no bearing on Addin-PCIe cards or controllers.

There is a half mini card slot onboard that is compatible with mSATA solid state drive.

If you use your SATA controller on a PCIe x4 slot, it won't work, because that slot was wired as x1.

Tesla 1856,
I admit I'm the least techie to be doing this, when it comes to this issue.
I also have a 6 port PCIe controller, all I see up front its a different manufacture. Here it is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Y577WJS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details .
Although I have no idea how you shrunk that link lol.
I was wondering if I needed to add a driver to get it to work. When I use the SATA ports on the mother board, it sees the new SSD drive. When I use a PCIe card port (I tried them all), it does not. It's like the PCIe card is not being recognized. I don't see it in the device manager either, that could be its there but I don't know what I'm looking for and don't recognize it. Is it that I'm missing a driver, controller, or something?
Ultimately I'd like to end up with 6 drives so my "requirement" is actually only a 1 or 2 port PCIe card. This card was a pittance more so I got it instead.
Any & all ideas are welcome. 
 

Hi Chino,
Thank you and yes I do know the PCIe slots are numbered differently. I ordered for like slot 'size?' Anyway I have a 4x & a 4x card. I dismantled the comp prior to ordering to make sure every thing fit.  

Have you try the longest PCIe x16 slot?

As I mentioned, the bottom slot is wired as x1, although it fitted a x4 card, it won't work.

This is very unlikely to work because CPU PCIe v3.0 lanes are designed by Intel primarily for GPU purposes.
Most of other devices simply are not working there (later they've extended support for NVMe storage).

@evd45 
Sadly mini-PCIe port specification has only 1 PCIe lane too, thus everything will have to be converged to work on x1 PCIe standard even if using one of those adapters:

Moreover Z87 chipset running PCIe 2.0 standard does limit available lane speed to 500 MB/s and with single cable of SATA-III at 6Gb/s (600MB/s) - having 3 of 1x PCIe ports (+ two extra via 1x mini-PCIe lanes)
leaves each adapter constrained to: one-adapter = one-SATA-drive topology if you intend to use all SATA  ports at max speed on single device. But it's not a problem if SATA drives are not used concurrently (e.g. not at the same time), then even x16 ports SATA-III PCIe x1 lanes adapters potentially can be used:

Speed of DMI 2.0 connecting CPU to Z87 chipset is limited to 2GB/s, therefore maximum you can get is below 4x SATA-III drives (600MB/s), with mechanical spinners this isn't an issue since those are much slower anyway but with SSD (at theoretical speeds) you may hit DMI bandwidth constraints if plan is to use all devices at max speed at the same time.

As already mentioned by @Chino de Oro  - this Dell model has all chipset-bound PCIe ports wired as x1 PCIe (despite having one x4 connector and spare lanes on chipset {x8 total}).

So make sure your adapter:
a) is x1 PCIe lane compliant
b) compatible with PCIe v 2.0 standard
c) has confirmed compatibility with Dell model (sometimes there are issues because of the way Dell codes BIOS), like via reviews or something..
otherwise it's on your own risk (of going via return process), but sometimes it works, therefore is a bit of a gamble.

Op did mentioned not too techie so I tried to be short and simple.  

1.  mSATA solid state drive can be used by connecting to a mini PCIe slot, right next to 2 rows of SATA ports.  Good speed, best use for system boot drive and all programs.  Does not require any external power or SATA connection.  Sample benchmark below.  Real result depends on quality of SSD used.

2.  The reason OP's SATA expansion card did not work on the PCIe x4 slot (bottom slot) because Dell physically wired it as x1 lane.  Hence, a suggestion to test it on the top slot, PCIe x16.  (Do not have that same chipset card for testing)

So far, OP does not post any result.  But, other alternative suggestions to think about.

a.  There is one exhaust fan and from PSU to pull out heat from CPU area.  Cooling for 6 of 3.5" spinning hard drives can be a challenge.  Suggest to keep only 3 bottom drives and changing the top 2 optical drive spaces to mobile dock.  Best use, it can be hot swap (with proper app) for use with unlimited number of drives.  High capacity drives can be added to existing library with ease.

b.  If no discrete graphics needed (no gaming), the PCIe x16 slot can be used for the newer NVMe solid state type.  Highest speed, best use for scratch drive, often move projects for fast external transfer.  Sample of benchmark below.

c.  Similar suggestion from other member, switch to a PCIe x1 SATA expansion card to add 2 more HDD drives as plan.  Plus adding an intake fan at bottom front location.

This is sample benchmark for mSATA drive

NVMe solid state drive can be used on PCIe x16 slot

Sample benchmark of NVMe drive on PCIe slot.

Just couple of a small notes on using CPU-bound x16 PCIe 3.0 slot - if NVMe adapter card does work there then:
1) It's very unlikely to be main drive because of possible lack of boot support (BIOS limitations).
2) It can be only single NVMe drive (since Dell consumer products hardly support manual or automatic bifurcation {via BIOS} and having onboard at hardware-level PCIe adapters are very expensive).


@evd45 
As for power requirements (PSU Wattage) - depends on your drives (some enterprise-level might be a bit more power-hungry) but general rule of thumb is to provision around/up to 10W for each SATA SSD at full load (half of it since they hardly used at max speed running power-heavy operation all at the same time, mostly majority of other drives will be idling - thus normally consume only around half a watt).
Therefore probably calculating say 4W per drive (if you have more than 5 SATA SSDs) will total up to 4Wx5Drives=20W of extra load on PSU
Peak power requirements for older HDD technology are a bit higher, sometimes up to 20W per drive (e.g. older generation enterprise-level HDDs for example 0.99A on +12V rail and 0.75A on +5V).

Chino de Oro & Sam,

First off let me say thank you both for all this vast amount of information. I only wish I could understand most of what you’ve provided, like you do. Secondly “4 Beryllium” or “3 Argentum”, I have no clue what these names refer to, and hope I’m addressing you both correctly IE: ‘Chino de Oro & Sam’
That said, I’m rethinking this whole idea.
This was never about speed or gaming, it was always been about storage. I’m a movie buff and honestly was running out of space lol.
I’m already sending back the adapter, and looking into an mSATA SSD, at this time however they seem to be limited to 2TB from what I can find anyway. So for now I’ll just have to be satisfied with the 2 SSD’s, I have and with options of 2 additional existing ports for additional SSD’s in the future. And I’ll just plug in the passports only when I need them, as I use them currently for additional external storage. They were also a big part of this as well I know running them constantly will only burn them up faster. Again thank you both for the help.

Ed

I think you are cutting yourself short.  Just the fact that some suggestions have influenced your storage expansion plan.  You are now rethinking and considering solid state drives.  You can add NVMe SSD to the top slot (x16 slot) using an adapter similar like this one.

I could guess that much of your purposes, hence the suggestion to use mobile dock , it will allow you to take a drive out and put in another drive, like a DVD disc, while the machine is still on.  That what I meant a convenient addition to your library (contents)

About 4 Beryllium or 3 Argentum, those are the ranking, depending on number of the badges we earned from contribution to this community.

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