Had no crashing or frame rate problems so it must be your chimpy PC's.
I've found the combat quite entertaining. Swapping in spells to cast mid fight to heal or buff/debuff keeps me on my toes. Of course if you go melee only then I'm sure its not as interesting. Add archery to this and I think the combat system is as good as any first person RPG.
As Kelger said the main part of the game is the freedom, exploration and no holds barred character advancement. I've been getting into Enchanting and Spellmaking and I'm stunned at what you can do, its just fooking amazing. I can't see me getting bored of this for a long time.
As to characters. You really need at least one skill in the primary or secondary set that effects each of the stats. Yes you can go pure melee or magic but you'll find yourself wishing you had this spell or that at some point. Like Kelger said a lot of the pre-made templates have multiples of skills you may never use.
I think this is as close to my temp as far as I can remember:
Primary:
Long Blade ( The best Deadric weapons are long blades)
Light Armour ( Medium seems the weakest and heavy kills the fatigue, a full set of glass armour and you are laughing)
Block (Took a while but now I'm blocking an awful lot, saved my bacon many time)
Restoration (Heals and cures, some of those poisons and disease are nasty)
Athletics ( Can out run and out swim anything, almost)
Secondary:
Heavy Armour ( I only have this to raise End as only this, Spear and Medium Armour raises End. I wore heavy until I had my End where I wanted it then swapped to light)
Acrobatics
Mysticism (Mark and Recall so I can gate about a bit to cut down on traveling)
Alteration (All the utility spells, levitate, water breathing, unlock etc etc, very useful, to me anyway. You can get most of these effects in potion form but its nice to have the spells always when you need them)
Marksmanship (My character will be a bowman ultimately, great for pulling and some of those magic arrows are awesome)
Zed, don't start in Vivec, its a nightmare there. Go to Balmora and do quests for the fighter and mage guilds there. They should have enough to see you gain a few levels. Basically when you are wandering around fight anything you see and enter any dungeon you come across. It might be best you starting again and creating your own template. Your attack skill and other main skills need to be in the primary or secondary slots as they go up quicker here.
