Hello! I am returning to Skyrim since the original release back in November of last year. I put a good 80 or so hours into vanilla and LOVED it.

Part of what has brought me back is Dawnguard, but also the potential of freshening up my game with some quality mods. I'd really like to keep a "minimalist" mod load, as I made the mistake of becoming OCD with Oblivion mods to the point where it became maddeningly stressful...

So I could use your help in choosing around 10-15 good solid mods... Here's what I'm looking at:

Essentials:

Unofficial Skyrim Patch (?) - planning on downloading this first, but does it play well with Dawnguard?

Improved Map with Roads

Better Quest Objectives

Overhauls:

SkyRe or ACE - I like the look of both of these just for improved balance and freshness. Anyone recommend one or the other?


Content:

Skyrim Monster Mod - This looks quite amazing as I was a huge fan of MMM for Oblivion. Is this recommended or is there something different/better?

Deadly Dragons

Cloaks of Skyrim - This just looks too cool to pass up



Gameplay:

Frostfall - I greatly miss the "hardcoe" mode from FNV and this looks to capture some of that survival element. Recommended? Does it work well with SkyRe or ACE?


Graphics:

This is tricky, as I'd like to keep my performance at top notch.

WATER
Enhanced Night Sky
XCE

Anything else essential here?

As you can see, this is quite a small load... What do you guys think? I'd love more recommendations!

Thanks!

I recommend Crimson Tide

It's the little things that are great:

First off, you need a program to manage your mods. NMM is weak. If you have basic knowledge of computers use wrye smash. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1840

Glowing ore veins....so you can actually see ore. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/193

An improved map, with roads. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4929

Better sorting of items, more logical and intuitive. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2730

Use the above sorting mod in conjunction with SkyUI for a MUCH better play experience.http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3863 <<---highly recommended improvement to the UI. Again, use with the above better sorting mod.

Simple and fun, adds more kill moves. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10906

Bored with the same intro every time you make a new character? Alternate start, its great.http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9557

Like to role play? An AWESOME camping mod. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10573

Want use for all the food and water in the game? Basic needs. This mod is light, simple, and not intrusive.http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10843 . Settings are configurable.

Followers are dumb. The fix? UFO. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037

You can't carry enough [censored]. This mod adds craft-able bag and pouches that appear on your character and look fantastic. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16438

Combat is too easy. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5485 <<----this is redundant if you chose to use Skyre


And last but not least, if you're feeling ambitious and want a game where it is almost un exploitable and better designed skill trees. ACE. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10037 This is a big change, but shouldn't effect your fps at all. I highly recommend it!


I've recently tried Skyre with a new play through and I have to admit I think I like it better then ACE.

So many, I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Those are some of the "simple" mods that I use that I can't see having any effect on your fps. I use many others, but they are bigger and a bit more complex.

From what you listed here, I've only tried Better Quest Objectives (which I really recommend if you don't use quest markers, like me), Frostfall and WATER.
I used Frostfall and it was nice but not immersive enough for me, so after reinstalling Skyrim I decided not to use it anymore.
WATER is really nice, and makes the water look much better than vanilla. It also adds underwater blur when diving, so I do recommend it.
Other mods I can recommend are Duel - Combat realism mod, which makes combat a bit more challenging and immersive, and, if your planning on playing as an archer, I recommend the Auto Unequip Ammo mod (the non-Dawnguard version is called Auto Unequip Arrows), which unequip's the arrows when you unequip your bow, and equip's you favorite arrow type when you equip your bow.

Your essentials look pretty good, I can vouche for SkyRe as I'm currently using it in my skyrim setup and really changes the way the game feels and plays (in a good way ofcourse ).
As for Skyrim Monster Mod, it has a couple of pretty good new creatures like Guars and hungers but there are some very lore-breaking monsters as well like Diablo from Diablo 3 and monsters from the Witcher 2.
Therefore I recommend installing http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16411 if you intend to use Skyrim Monster mod.
Other gameplay mods that are definately worth checking out are http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12479, http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16225, http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5485 , http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9247 and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14037 and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9557.
For graphical enhancements you might also want to get http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10383 , http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8655, http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9323, http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17802 and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21377.

I'm using all of the above and more and haven't had a single CTD/Freeze/anything in the 70~ish hours I've played with uGrids7 enabled.
*I did notice using Crimson Tide caused a ton of Papyrus errors and would eventually lead to crashing so I can't recommend that mod, might be different for other people though.*

ACE is very good and pretty compatible with combat mods like Deadly Combat or Duel, and is just very compatible in general (though you'll need patches for most archery mods). Part of the reason for this is because it's more about tweaking game balance and adding a few mechanics, where SkyRE is a big overhaul. SkyRE has a lot of fans, too, and may be a good "one-stop shop".

I think Skyrim Monster Mod is essential--though I personally use the Lore-Friendly patch as well to make it fit better with Skyrim and TES in general.

I'd also suggest:
ASIS - for increased spawns, AI tweaks, etc.
SkyUI and Categorized Favorites (plus Better Sorting or another sorting mod)
Warzones - if your CPU can handle it
Occupy Skyrim - for a little extra in the random encounters department

Haven't tried SkyRe or ACE, but Frostfall is a fantastic mod, don't think I could go back to playing Skyrim without it.

If you are going for the survival experience, you probably also want a needs mod for hunger, thirst, sleep. Highly recommend Imp's More Complex Needs, although I haven't had a chance to test it to confirm it works with Dawnguard vampire feeding yet. It's tremendously detailed and highly customizable, for example, sleep deprivation results in penalties to magic and crafting skills, alcohol effects are calculated based on the PC's body weight and blood alcohol content, etc. I've posted a list of a few similar mods that seem to work together well for a survival/realism playthrough http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=17346

Actually, is there any other really good perk overhaul other than ACE and SkyRe? Something that's balanced and preferably updated for Dawnguard?

To OP, ironhead recommended you Crimson Tide - AFAIK it's buggy right now and you're better off using the Enhanced Blood Textures mod which now also does pretty much the same thing and now is updated for Dawnguard.
EDIT: Actually nevermind, looking at the comments on nexus it seems it's got some problems too so I'd suggest staying away for now.

I've used a few different specialized mods to add new perks. For example, Empowered Magic and Necromancer have some great magic skill perks, Throwing Weapons adds a number of new perks related to thrown weapons, poisons and potions, and I plan to try a couple of new Dawnguard mods that add perks for the Vampire Lord and Werewolf perk trees.

Forgot to add I mostly meant the combat and thief trees 'cause there's quite a lot of magic overhauls. There's a pretty good one for the Stealth tree - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10456

SkyRe is very good, but I haven't tried ACE, so I can't compare them, unfortunately.

For graphics I think http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8655 is essential. Also, http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7654 is great, and you may find that with that you may want http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=18916.

As far as content goes, I tend to think that http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9557 is really important, assuming you don't really like playing through Helgen constantly. If you decide to use that and shun the Main Quest, then you may want http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9621 as well. I don't know how well it plays with SkyRe (I recently uninstalled SkyRe so I could try out a few conflicting mods), but http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2933 is worth looking into.

Finally, I think the following are worthwhile, but not necessarily something you asked about:
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17168
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=14037
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9544
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10906
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12479
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4955
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863

...and you may like http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16474 if you're into finding overpowered loot on the dragons you kill.