Thanks. I'll try using OBMM for the timestamps, but will fall back on the other option if necessary. To what should they be changed, exactly? Or even approximately...

And for the other bit, the optimise oblivion ini is set to skip the other things it needs to, or do I also need to be selective in which subdirectories are done?

edit: Thought I had this all figured out before, but as it turns out...

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1091580-tesivpositive-performance-optimiation-stabilization-information/