Hello! I'm going to try and force myself to play a mage character for the first time in any ES game. Normally I get bored and swap to my trusty swords and heavy armour, but this time I really want to go all out in the magic side of things. What I'm looking for are mods that you felt added to the mage experience? Cool weaponry, magical floating houses, mounts or companions? Magical summoning abilities? New races? Anything that isn't a magic revamp. I know those exist and will look into those.

Hope that's clear!

TL:DR I want to feel like Merlin or Mad Madam Mym! Recommend a mod that makes me feel like a all powerful wizard.

Here's a floating home in the sky, although it's still in Beta: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12868

Also, if you're playing an evil mage, look up Reapers The Dark Tower on Nexus.

add this one http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17353

adds some nice spells and powers.

Yeah, from what I've seen, AstralFire did pretty well with that one. Then there's the Apocalypse spell mod which is pretty highly regarded.

Azerskybub
seen quite a number of these recently

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1374462-req-mage-focused-mods/

Apparently moderators even merged the myriad of topics on "balanced" ones here:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1386208-balanced-favorite-magic-mod-suggestions-merged-similar-topics/

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1387348-somebody-give-me-some-suggestions-for-some-magic-related-mods-and-others/

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1387209-lairs-for-dark-mages/

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1383408-your-opinion-on-improving-mage-gameplay/

I got some good suggestions in this thread: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1387348-somebody-give-me-some-suggestions-for-some-magic-related-mods-and-others/page__fromsearch__1

And this specific post has a ton of great suggestions. Not all magic-related, but many of them are widely praised. I've chosen quite a few of these myself: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1380916-recommend-some-mods-to-play-while-we-wait-for-dawnguard/page__p__20939311#entry20939311

But I specifically said I was not looking for a balancing mod. And the first link you provided has a total of three links in it, and is hardly a comprehensive discussion. That's like me asking for a recommendation for a mod that adds new swords and you posting a reference to people complaining about how little/much damage the swords do in the vanilla game.

I've spent the last few hours looking through nexus and a few other places and come to the conclusion that there just isn't much out there yet. Still, I'm happy to take any recomendations that you know of, and when more comes out, I'll add them to this list myself, to help other people out.

http://www.wolflore.net/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=1218 - Retextured robes. The Necromancer's Robe actually looks like the sort of thing a necromancer would wear, whereas the other robes look more mystical and regal. That's right, your mage isn't a hobo anymore!

Keep in mind that the CK has only been out since February. On top of that, the navmesh bug, which prevented some mods from working properly, was only fixed by Bethesda about three weeks ago. And then there's Papyrus. I'm sure we will be seeing many more interesting magic-oriented mods in the coming months when the dust from all this settles.

I am playing my first mage in Skyrim right now myself. Besides using an overhaul mod, I am using the house mod http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11803, which stuck me as kind of an approrpriate house mod for a mage.

There is my little mod, not as flashy or comprehensive as some others... Though I am planning some updates soon.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15408

Mighty Magick is great as a general magic overhaul: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13166