Starting Oblivion - to mod or not to mod?

[HangTime]

Yesterday I picked up Oblivion together with the expansion pack, Knights of the Nine. A search of the forums indicates that the "OOO" mod is probably the best one to install. However, having never played the game before what I'm wondering is whether it is best to start of playing purely the official content (Oblivion+expansion), or apply a mod before I get started?

Also I have never played a Bethesda game before so are there any general tips or advice I should heed? Apart from KOTOR1/2 I haven't really got into any RPGs since the 90s.

 

[HangTime]

What's performance like with LOD increase tweaks? I only have a 7900GTO so am a bit wary about increasing the detail.

 

[HangTime]

In the end I've gone for the following:

No Psychic Guards
Natural Environments
Qarls texture pack 2
Better tiling for Qarl
Better nightsky
landscape lod normalmap fix
btq4096
Skingrad roof textures
1.5.1 unofficial patch
Texian's window lighting
Slof's Dremora textures
Slof's horses
Improved facial textures
Gorier blood
BTMod

Away on business for a few days so won't be able to get started until Friday night at the earliest - probably end up looking like a complete mess or running like a dog, so I'll probably end up nuking it all and starting again with something more modest anyway