I just installed Skyrim, and I need some suggestions. I got the unofficial patches, but beyond that I am just overwhelmed by the sheer number of mods and especially duplicate mods that (purportedly) do the same things.

1) The Nexus Mod Manager: It's nice to be able to see mod descriptions as I am installing them. But I like to separate the downloaded archives into different sub-directories named after categories, similar to the Nexus organization style, rather than keep them in one directory, because from my experience playing Oblivion, Fallout 3/NV, when your mod list starts to grow, this will become rather unmanageable. But can the NMM handle un/installation of mods from separate directories? If so I haven't figured out how. And if not, why not?

2) Which food/water/sleep needs mod have been updated to work with the latest patch and DLCs? Which one are you using?

3) How many custom body mods are there (male and female)? Which one is the best supported at the moment (with the most number of clothing/armour mods)?

4) (Remove) level scaling mods: So far, the only one I've found is the http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9857, which also supports compatibility with a number of custom item mods by editing the levellist. Any other suggestions? I am looking for a mod that randomizes the level scaling (so anything can spawn, rather than weaker monsters eventually becoming extinct as your character levels) and adds a whole slew of custom items, weapons and armour to the levellist (I guess we would be talking about an 'overhaul' mod here....).

5) Performance mods. I checked out a few, and they didn't seem to have much impact on my FPS. But if anyone can list the most popular ones, in cased I missed them, it'd be appreciated. Right now I can run high setting and get 30+ FPS. Pretty good considering my machine isn't really that much more powerful than a toaster. It wouldn't hurt to be able to milk a bit more from the engine.