be careful, it's a dangerous hobby.

at first i only wanted to spend a few dollars. now my wallet is empty

I am having a hard time getting a compatible parts list for a single GTX 980 rig. I've never built a rig or a computer but would like to learn. Is there any kind of website that aggregates compatible PC parts for mining, or just for general compatibility?

Thanks!

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/G41M-P33.html#hero-specification

TWO PCIE SLOTS!

That board has three PCI-e slots so you could try up to 3 cards max using PCI-e 1x to 16x powered USB risers. I have a Dell XPS 720 (four PCI-E slots) with the same CPU and it's running three cards. The only problem is you can't access the bios with a newer video card in the primary 16x slot, so I have an old Nvidia 6600 I use when I need to access the Bios. Otherwise it mines just fine with three cards. If you can't get it to work, any B250 motherboard, a Pentium G4400 Celeron processor, a 4GB DDR4 2400/ 2133 RAM stick, RX 470 / RX 570 VGA cards and a 750W / 850W Gold or better PSU would be a good choice for up to 4 cards with risers.