AaronEh

I seem to be suffering from this bug as well. I am also using Civil War Overhaul. Thanks for letting us know what worked for you.

I have had this error as well. I used this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/31675/? to clean my save game and it seemed to work as well. The error is no longer in the log and the CTD's are a fraction of what they used to be.

Depends what resolution you plan to run. I think it will be tough getting reasonable frame rates with high graphic settings plus extra graphics mods with that card. I'm using a 560 Ti which I think is better for gaming performance and I get 30 fps in some areas with the Bethesda HD texture pack and a performance ENB mod. Your card has more Ram so that might help with the HD textures though.

With regard to Smithing if you take a look at the chart here with the Steel smithing perk the move from Superior to Exquisite happens only when you reach level 40 smithing. So, each smithing level increase between 22 and 40 only raises your character level and won't contribute to improved weapons and armour. I generally will mine ore, save ingots and wolf pelts and improve my smithing only when I have enough save to get me to the next tier; for example from 22 to 40.

Also consider there are breakpoints for Smithing - there are basically dead zones where skill improvements won't contribute to better weapons and armour. Out of the box Leather and Hide have no perks so you will need a higher base skill to get the same results. I find a good approach to take is to make sure your crafting skills aren't higher than your main combat skills. This keeps enemies level lower and allows you to maximize your damage output.

If you keep a steady supply of vegetable soup in your pockets and buff yourself with them throughout the dungeons you can invest everything into health and forgo stamina. Also, on the two handed side I find the slower speed of the warhammer allows me to do a normal attack then power attack cycle that is just slightly longer than the time it takes the enemy to recover from a stagger. This, effectively keeps them incapacitated. Plus the steel warhammer from the Millenia Weapon Retexture Project - WRP looks great :).

Here: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3871 Looks like it's from this mod.