I respect that.
Just keep in mind that the storage part of any setup you consider is the hard part. It also involves backup, which should be high on your priorities.
As to Windows, l’m indebted to Bill for my livelihood… but for your testing, there is little value in virtualising windows OS: because you already know how Windows works. Go for linux instead, there’s a lot more going on there. And you can run linuxes with a lot less ram.
I’m not sure it’s going to work like you hope it will. Your enclosure can run ‘raid’ but zfs doesn’t like raid. As far as ‘jbod’ thru one esata cable…thats not how zfs likes it either.
Your best bet is to buy a m2/nvme to 5 sata port adapter so zfs can distinguish each drive. But then… the question is if your enclosure allows that.
I love mini pc’s but for zfs there’s not a lot of wriggle room. High end ones have dual nvme ports allowing for zfs mirror. Other than that you’ll have to go said sata_nvme + an enclosure that powers all disks but allows for individual sata cables. It’s gonna be clunky macgyvering too.
If I’m wrong I’ll accept the flak.