need more horses!!!

Right...cheap big HP would be nitrous...
But if you want some serious seat of the pants, you NEED gears...
First and foremost though, you need a plan. If you do think you may go nitrous, S/C, Turbo or whatnot, you'd want less gear than if staying NA.
It seems most of us do exhaust, gears, cold air, TB / plenum, UDPs, shifter - first...
 
HP ain't cheap. I have to second the opinion of having a plan, i.e. if you plan on putting on a S/C you don't need a CAI. I'm pretty much where you are right now, cat-back only. But I am already formulating a plan to get where I want even if it takes a few years I will get there.
 
I third the opinion to plan everything out. reliaze that your plans may change as you progress along. If I had to do it all over again i would haved saved up for all my suspension mods as a package deal like i did with my procharger kit. You will save alot more $ in the long run by buying thigs as packages rather than trying to peice things together. Another good thing about package deals is you already know the parts you get will work well together and not conflict with eachother. Being in the military now a days gives you time to save up for that especially if you deploy. Because you should have some extra $ left over after you get back from deploying to go out and blow 4500 on a supecharger. Unless your like me and your wife go's out and buys a new dinning room set instead on you LOL. Good luck and thanks for serving
 
headers are to much money for the small gain in HP. CAI, Plenum and TB combo will gain you more HP than headers alone for about the same money. Tuner... gears move you faster but for the extra HP you have to harden them. I had mine mikronited and gained 5-8 HP thought out the curve.