I have very little experience with modding, with the Morrowind Overhaul being one of the very few I've ever tried. And as a result of that mod, it looked fantastic. (And bugs were squashed, etc.). BUT, it also made a game over 10 years old running on a very nice modern computer that runs Cyrsis 2 (never tried 3) fine on Ultra (or whatever highest setting was) run so poorly that I had to turn down some things to get a frame rate I could live with.

So, I'm playing Skyrim pretty seriously right now (up to level 28, with 60 hours in on a game I started last week) and see some pretty awesome mods out there.... but.... I have questions. Anyone here care to provide any info on these?

1) Most importantly, let's say I want to go for some pretty serious modding that fixes a lot what was left unfixed by Bethesda. At level 28 with 60 hours in, obviously I'd rather not have to start over. Is this doable, or do the "patch" mods pretty much mean one should start over?

2) As far as eye candy goes, I think Skyrim looks pretty darn good vanilla, and running on a laptop with a Nvidia 850 or 860 (can't recall now, and NO, this is not the computer that I was talking about running Morrowind Overhaul on, that was one of my desktops) it runs fine on Ultra, but you can tell it's taxed because there have been brief moments when the frame rate would drop. This means it would be a waste to add any mods that improve visuals right? Because if it improves visuals but then I have to turn down settings to get a working frame rate, I've added on one hand and subtracted on the other right?

3) Do most of you recommend using the NMM or just using the built in Steam workshop thing?

4) Along those same lines, do most of you recommend using the NMM or the FOMM for modding Fallout 3 and Fallout NV???

And please, if the makers/modders of the Morrowind Overhaul are reading this, I am NOT criticizing your work. I think the Morrowind Overhaul is AWESOME, and having played a few hundred hours Vanilla and then a few hundred with the Overhaul, I will NEVER go back to vanilla. It's just it does seem to really tax resources for some reason. I suppose it could be something I did wrong, but I followed the instructions verbatim.

EDIT: Just watched Gopher's Intro to Nexus Mod Manger Video and am going to go ahead and go there and register. Even if answers result in me not modding Skyrim, having an account there will probably be good for modding other games.

1: I think you should be okay with the unnoficial community patches on an existing game - not 100% sure, but as long as you have a prior hardsave you can always test it out to see.
2: I think theres some texture packs out there that give better quality textures without the power hogging on your system. yet again not sure (havent tried them
3: Use the NMM. EDIT: as it should show mod compatability / load order. to my knowledge, steam wont do that.
4: FOMM or FMOD (think that was the other).

Hope thats of use!

You can set up hotkeys in MGE XE to reduce the view-distance or disable taxing graphics settings in-game. Following Gopher's tutorials is a great idea.
However, the intro might be out-of-date. Be sure to watch the latest Nexus Mod Manager video. Most mods will be fine. Read the requirements and installation instructions of each mod. You should definitely install a lighting mod because these improve the look of the game by a lot without reducing the performance and a water texture mod that has the same resolution as the vanilla game's texture.
Edit: I've posted examples for such mods below NMM or alternatives but not the Steam workshop thing. Last time I checked, FOMM was better for the Fallout games.

Both options are neat enough and each one has its own (dis)advantages. But, until you need more specific mods and/or more customization, workshop is just fine. Most popular mods are readily available and you got some pretty decent compilations. Specially useful, the unofficial patches one. I have used nexus in the past and I love it, but workshop is pretty convenient.
Both are good, so you won't make a wrong choice, but I find Steam's options to be quicker to get started. In the end, I end up using a mixture of both though. I would still keep NMM installed, because I prefer its management options.

Edit: I see lots of "hate" for the workshop. Most complaints aren't without reason, but I would suggest even other tools for stuff like mod order. I used to use BOSS, but last time I think I found out it was outdated. Should be easy enough to get info about that though. But for downloading basic mods, I think workshop is the best, and then use other tools (not only NMM) for tweaking the experience.

About graphics, most of them are retextures. As long as you have some spare video memory and don't get the ultra-high-143184149K-OMG textures, you should be fine with the laptop. But if you want to install more retextures, improved cities with more meshes and some kind of shaders / light / FX mod, you'll probably get some frame drops. I recommend to use if you want to get crazy with grass and shadows, but if you just want some retextures for the awful snow and meshes, I think you'll have enough with the laptop.

I have only modded Fallout 3, and despite using NMM at first, I remember I could only actually play with the mods when swichted to FOMM. Can't make sure though, as I sadly had to nuke that installation and right now, I haven't installed even the base game.

Edit 2: regarding 1), I think that only the unofficial patches are a must have. There is not much missing, AFAIK. You could try some of the extra quests popular mods. But in the past I tried stuff such as "improved high level monsters" or "extra creatures" and I found the added unbalanced items/crafting and generally feeling, for me, unbalanced. So, read the descriptions and install one by one, trying in the middle, so you can detect any shit you might find ASAP.

Last time I modded Skyrim, I used the Mod Organizer.
It's only for the 'newer' Gamebryo engine though.
If you've got too much time on your hands and you want some information on modding FO:NV or Skyrim, you could check out Gopher.
It should be fine to add the unofficial patches to Skyrim even after playing I think, IIRC the biggest issue is removing mods later on and not so much adding new ones.

Ah I see you already knew about Gopher, oh well.

A few examples of well-known lighting and water mods:

Many people like to play Skyrim with an ENB to make it look stunning but you can forget that if you haven't got dozens of FPS to spare.
By using a good lighting mod you can get a similarly beautiful result without giving up on any performance.

-Realistic Lighting Overhaul by The Realistic Lighting Team
This is the successor to a mod I've used and liked. The authors promise you will have no performance impact.

-Enhanced Lights and FX by anamorfus
This is the lighting mod I used when I last played Skyrim. It has a slight performance impact because it adds new things to render. You'll only want to use this mod if you like pitch black caves and every light to have a visible source (no light where there are no torches or other fire).

-Climates Of Tamriel - Weather - Lighting - Audio by JJC71
This not only changes the lighting. I don't know a lot about this mod.

-Realistic Water Two by isoku
To my knowledge, the very best water texture mod. The only downside is that it alters a lot apart from textures, which means more mods will need a compatibility patch if you plan to use them with Realistic Water Two.
Low resolution textures are available.

-Pure Waters by Laast
Makes especially lakes and small rivers look very realistic. The author claims that there is no FPS drop.

For some reason I can't find "W.A.T.E.R." (water and terrain enhancement redux) anymore.

OKAY!!! I'm a modder!!! LOL

And WOW WOW WOW, let me tell you folks who have only played vanilla, the lighting mod (I chose RLO) is AMAZING. It's much more than I thought. Everywhere is so much more realistic lighting (which can be bad if you like the ease of being able to see without a torch or magical lighting in dark places), I mean EVERYWHERE LOOKS MORE AMAZING.

I also did the Real Water Two (I think it was called) and Real Storms (and WOW on that one too) along with the unofficial patches for the base game, Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and the Hi Res Packs. I haven't gone back to my house yet to see if the Hearthfire unofficial patch "unfixed" the problem I was having with the display cases not letting me place items in them that I fixed with a patch on the Steam workshop. But I think (real stretch there) I'll be okay if I understood what I was reading about mods. I placed the Hearthfire unofficial patch in order right after the Hearthfire DLC, and the Steam workshop display cases fixes at the end, so I think by putting them last nothing should change. Or not.

Anyway, wow, the NMM is as easy to use as Gopher said in his video. It's so simple a dummy like me is now adding mods almost like I know what I'm doing.

Didn't opt for any other graphical improvements because I'm afraid of a performance hit, but if I can get my desktop back up and running soon I may check out a bunch of them.

MODDING IS FUN! I think I'm going to almost get a whole new experience with Fallout 3 and Fallout NV despite playing them both all the way through multiple times.

Congratulations and glad that you like it. When I first installed the predecessor of RLO, Realistic Lighting with darker nights I wondered why I hadn't begun modding Skyrim earlier.

Another hint: If you can run it the best graphical mod in my opinion is Skyrim Flora Overhaul. I used the regular version, I think and can only say that if you can run the mod you should install it.
The modder behind it, Vurt, has made some of the best models and textures for vegetation I've ever seen (His tree replacers are a part of MGSO btw) and IMO his works deserve their own game.

Edit:
I think all unofficial patches should come directly after Hearthfire in your load-order not just the Hearthfire unofficial patch.

If you've only done Skyrim so far, you'll love modding FO3 and FO:NV.
Oh and don't forget Oblivion.

Well, I was wrong (as usual) about thinking I was okay. Yep, the unofficial Hearthfire patch broke the Display Case Patches I got from the Steam Workshop. All of my display cases still have the weapons in them, but I can no longer pick them up and change them and put them back. And yes, I tested this exhaustively LOL, because I was always changing my mind on what weapons I wanted in what display cases. Guess I can't change my mind anymore, and worse still, guess I won't have access to those weapons anymore.

Stupid me played around two hours before returning "home" and discovering this, and I really don't want to go back to that last save and lose those two hours, so uninstalling (or unchecking) the mods and going back isn't an option. Guess I could try just unchecking the display case patches from the Steam workshop and see if that helps. Didn't think of that till just now, but not going to completely undo and redo the last two hours. So, modding has it's risks LOL.

There was another funny thing that happened too. I have a female house steward at my "manor" and I have a female follower right now. When I got back home, I was greeted by an invasion of bandits right at my front door, and the ensuing battle was epic, because the house steward and my follower somehow ended up fighting each other and neither could kill the other I guess because it went on forever. I finally just fast traveled somewhere else to end the catfighting between the two. LOL, I told myself while this was going on.... "Hey, OldFatGuy's still got some sex appeal, these two are fighting over me!"

Oh well, mods and bugs and you gotta laugh, right?

ADDED: Oh and THANK YOU very much for all of your responses. Your responses are what gave me the courage to try this. And I'm not too worried about the display case thing. I'm betting I'll figure something out eventually anyway.

you should never play a bethesda game without looking u the console commands. you'll be able to delete the weapons (as I remember), and respawn them in your inventory as needed. it will however, require you to make a note of all mods / data packs you have installed and add their numerical order!

Oh boy, it's worse than I thought. NONE of the weapon racks, in addition to the display cases, are working now. All I get is the "Activate Weapon Rack" (or "Select Weapon Rack" or whatever it says), despite all of these racks and display cases already having weapons in them. Ordinarily, if empty, when you point your cursor at them you get the "Activate Weapon Rack" and it places whatever weapon is equipped in the rack. If not empty, when you point your cursor at it, then you get the standard option to pick up the weapon, just like it was laying on the floor.

But since I added the mods today, when empty they work right, and let me place a weapon there. But once there, it's there forever, because afterwards when pointing at it it's like it thinks it's still empty and only gives you the option to place a weapon there. In fact, I went ahead and equipped another weapon and clicked on a rack that already had one weapon in it, and it placed the second weapon there in addition to the first one still "being there.". Which looked funny. And not so funny, both weapons are "gone" forever.

Guessing I'm going to have to uninstall the Hearthfire unofficial patch, which sucks because if I read it correctly it fixes quite a few things that the display case patch didn't (the ONLY thing those patches addressed were the display cases not allowing you to activate them).

Oh well, I'll fiddle around and try a few things and see if anything works. Worst case scenario I have to uninstall all of the mods I installed today and lose my two hours or so of gameplay. That would suck, but wouldn't be too awful I guess.

I'm not a huge proponent of modding mechanical changes to the game, so most of what I mod either adds new content and NPCs, or improves textures and effects, rather than really changing how the game plays.

If you don't use SkyUI, you probably should. it's a substantial improvement over the default UI, and won't cause a performance hit. You should, if you have the power to run the upgrade, also use the HD textures for the game.

Beyond that, though, it's all personal preference. I get a lot of mileage out of the various normalmaps upgrades and "pretty faces" mods for male and female characters, especially for NPCs that I end up having follow me around a lot, or the housecarls which I see all the time. Some of the big area additions are really good; I recommend Falskaar whenever anyone asks what to add to their game. You might look at the "Skyrim HD" series of retextures if you get your desktop up and running again - it's a little over a gigabyte of data, compressed, so it could take a little bit to download, but it really sharpens up the game.

If you're going to give Fallout: New Vegas a spin, be sure to ask about the mods before you start the game. That game benefits hugely from the modding community, not least because some of the mods basically fix almost all the crash bugs in the game, which is a big deal ^_^

no, use the console commands like I said!

If you know the IDs of the weapons you lost (they should be listed on uesp.net if they're vanilla items) you should be able to hack in replacements using the console. Before doing this, save your game in a separate slot, just in case something goes wrong. Press that weird button to the left of the 1 key on your keyboard to open the console prompt, then type in "player.additem ID 1" without the quotes, where ID is the item ID you looked up, and press enter. Press the button near the 1 again to close the console, and check your inventory. The lost item should have appeared.

The console is a very useful tool for working round any minor bugs that happen when modding, and it's well worth becoming familiar with some of the more useful things it can do. [url=http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console]This page[/url] lists all the console commands the game has. Besides additem, particularly useful ones include:

disable (makes the thing you target disappear and stop affecting the world: useful if you get duplicates of something)
enable (bring it back again: sadly you have to still have it targetted from the disable or the game won't know what you're trying to disable)
tgm (makes you invincible and stops you losing mana/stamina: saves time if you need to redo something due to a crash or bug; use it again to disable)
tcl (toggle clipping: good if you get stuck in terrain or need to get past a blockage you can't move)
setstage (force a quest to continue if you don't get a journal update)