I'm so happy for you! You're going to have So Much Fun!

First thing should be the essential mods that stop your hood or game blowing up.

Then be sure to keep your cc organized into folders and read over mod descriptions. it's very easy to end up with mod clashes.

Yay! I'm so glad you got your game!

Before you do too much in the way of playing, download these:
nounlinkondelete http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=2083.0
creaturefix http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=1482.0
nosimloaded http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1665
4GB patch http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

Read over this post, and find out if your game is properly reading your graphics card. If not, it will walk you through the steps to fix it:
http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=5446

Then, I would play for awhile before adding a lot of mods. I'm a big proponent for knowing what you like or don't like about the game before trying to fix it. Sure, some things can get annoying, but even the most annoying actions need to be experienced once or twice!

Here is a link to the "essential mods" thread -- some of which are not "essential" but might be useful. Be sure to read what each mod does before deciding to download. http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...5#startcomments