I looked in the FAQ and couldn't find answers on this.

I've been playing Morrowind for a year or two, did the main quest, some faction quests, and the expansions. I still have a few more things to do but I'm ready for mods now.

But I don't know if my old computer can handle them.

The computer I'm using is 3 or 4 years old, it handles Morrowind and is expansions alright, so I'm almost sure It could handle mods if I cleared some Hard drive space.

So what I'm really asking, is what kind of memory and computer capability's will I need to mod Morrowind?

If you can run the game you can run the mods

Thanks that's what I needed to know.

I just have to make sure I don't put to much pressure on my machine then?

Not really. As long as you have the memory to support all the mod files and stuff you are free to mod away, and even then, the mod files usually are really light so your pc wont be really "heavy" if you know what i mean

wait most mods aren't heavy with data?

They are really compact so they shouldnt be TOO heavy. I take it as you pc is not full of stuff so you will be fine. Don't worry

There's some mods you won't be able to run like that Steampunk one.

Well actually it depends on the number of mods you add and what they do. Mods with more scripts running at once will take more power to run; and those grass mods. If you have any sort of modern up to date non-cheap computer(as in not netbook and with a dedicated graphics card), you should be able to run anything.

Know your system specs?

You should be able to run most mods, graphic overhaul mods are the ones that usually take up the most memory, as previously stated, they have more scripts to run.

Agree.

Lots of mods that have heavy scripts running constantly can cause some slow down, but it's not too big of a concern for the most part. Most of these mods will use MWSE.
Animated grass won't be feasible on low-end machines.
The more NPCs you add, the more of a demand they place on your computer. NPCs use a lot of memory when being rendered at once.
All the fancy shaders, waters, and Distant Land of MGE won't be able to run on low-end machines.
High-poly count meshes will really slow you down. There are not very many of these, though.

Other than that (unless I missed something) you are pretty much free to add all sorts of stuff without worry.

There are also tools to help optimize performance.
Like the http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=utilities.detail&id=22 and the http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php.
There are two unofficial patches as well, (Code Patch and Patch Project) that fix many things and make the game more stable. Info on them here under the Essentials: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1305729-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/

Most graphic mods have zero scripts (why would they need any scripts at all?) They are just more demanding on your hardware.

I probably should have been more specific here are some more of the details.

It's a Laptop with Windows 7 or 8 (forgot which I think it's 7).

It's RAM is about 2, a little less then half of its HD space has been taken up over the years.

The machine has noticeable wear and tear from endless gaming on it. But for a computer which has suffered multiple MMO pvp battles and a few solo-games it's in excellent condition (most computers would be falling apart at the seams by now).

That's why I posted this question, I didn't know if the old girl could handle it, but based on your answers it should be able to if I just clear some junk to free the Hard drive for a fully modded game.

Good one. If computers suffered as a direct result of gaming, I'd be accused of cruel and unusual punishment! Know your graphics card?

I have no idea, I'll find out though, what would be a good one?

Also computers do suffer from gaming, at least MMOs, due to button mashing.

Huh, I thought they did...

*grins sheepishly*

If it's a laptop, then your video card might not be strong enough for anything fancy. ... Most integrated video cards are not made for gaming.
If it's a PC, you can always update it if major problems occur.

But since you can run vanilla Morrowind (and other games) you should be fine for most aspects of modding.

It's hard to say in a post that ought to remain short. I would think that typically anything fairly new (0-3 yrs old) from ATI or nVidia could at least survive running graphics mods such as MGE or MGE XE...
I've run MW with MGE XE on a few setups. On my budget gamer desktop, I have what's called an ATI Radeon HD 6850. It renders MGE XE shaders and a fairly hefty distant land setup (20 cells) without dropping below 20 FPS (most of the time it's at 35 FPS or so.)
It was a different story with my previous MW install, on my 3 yr old non-gaming dell laptop that carried an older ATI Radeon Mobility 4530. That could not retain even shaders like depth-of-field at a playable rate, often dropping below 10 FPS. It could, however, take on non-graphics mods till the cows came home.

In a nutshell, I think with the age of your comp it should be fine running a modded Morrowind. A graphically enhanced Morrowind is a different story, and we'd really have to see some specs before determining that. Remember that MW is a game made for computers 10 years ago, not the super multi-core machines we have today.


Good point! I'm not a big MMO guy, so I wouldn't know.

Short answer: Have a good (if not great) cpu and you're fine.

Long answer: It really depends on what you're aiming at and what sort of mods you want. With replacers and mods that add clutter for fore atmosphere, you can bring down any PC to 15-20 fps. Morrowind is mostly CPU limited and has no multi-core support at all. A bunch of script-heavy mods can severely hit performance especially in conjunction with demanding graphics replacers. Try shoving the .exe on the second core on startup to give it some more headroom since the first core usually is the one that gets used most.

As for specs: Hard to tell if you don't provide yours. I guess a 3-4 yo computer should be fine. Mine is about that age and I have a quadcore phenom 2, 8gb ram and a radeon 5770 gpu. It still runs everything as long as I don't set everything on ultra high. That said, I'm a guy that is fine with 4x AA/AF and post-processing turned down (because I hate motion-blur, DOF and excessive bloom)