Building a pc w/ sli

Hi, I'm fairly new to building pcs though i have had experience in other fields such as programming, and this is my first post on the forum. I was wondering several things about nVidia's SLI stuff.
1. Is it possible to run 1 SLI card on an SLI motherboard to leave room for expansion later? (I would think so, but I want to make sure)
2. If I plan on only one graphics card for the life of my pc, do I need an sli enabled motherboard to run that one card if it happens to be SLI?

Thank you, im trying to do some research on all of the different components before I lay down the cash.

1) Yes
2) No

For a given budget it's generally better to get once nicer card than two weaker ones. SLI doesn't really come into play unless you have the budget for 2 really awesome cards or about 18 months after the original build, when your original card is starting to show it's age. Then you can pick a 2nd card for a reasonable price and start running sli.

I spent at least 6 months doing research before my first build on how to build, what parts i needed, and then the best parts to achieve what I wanted out of my rig.

My best advice to you is to just keep asking questions...that is the only way you're really going to learn. Search online like no other for articles also. Just keep learning. Now for me building a pc seems pretty simple, hardest part was picking the actual hardware.

Also, keep price watching on parts you are going to need. I like looking at Newegg.com because they have relatively low prices and tons of people leave reviews that are very helpful. But always shop around. Clubit.com every now and then will surprise you.

Good luck.

Some more about Newegg:

They don't always have the absolute lowest price for every component, but a lot of the time they do. If they don't, it's never way out of line with the site that does, and site that does is often some small shop in the middle of nowhere with no return policy.

Plus their bigger volume means they have more shipping muscle so they can often make up any difference there. If you're buying several items (like when doing a full build) the savings you get from not having a brand new shipping charge with each item can really add up. If I were to do a full build I'd probably do the entire thing through newegg in a single order.

if you decide on a X2 video card it is literally 2 cards in one with internal SLI/Crossfire enabled. Versus 2 single cards is more along the lines of external SLI with more settings in the OS to change or go wrong.

Unless you have a 21" or bigger monitor, I would not even worry about SLI which means not worrying about an SLI enabled motherboard (go Intel boards or if you get AMD CPU then and AMD chipset).