Every 10 or so seconds I go from 30 fps to around 5 for about 3 seconds.

It's very annoying, what could be doing this?

installed mods

I think your problem is that your active mod list requires four images.

How you can even run CC with that many mods...

I could probably take a shower in the time it takes to load those each bootup!

I am flattered that 2 of mine are in there though.

You have a mod manager. Use it.
Untick every mod you're not going to specifically use.

That's a lot of mods? It only takes a few minutes to start up.

So I should cut down on some of them I'm not using?

Lol, a few minutes? It takes me 10 seconds to load with Zombies 09 and some other mods I'm working on.

Try it at least, see if it helps any. I never play with many more than 4 or 5 mods enabled at any one time.