[sick472]

A lot of good advice already.

Check into the airgap style mani's like the 7501. I have had good luck with that style on a couple other builds (not Chevy builds). They allow you to push past the 5500 rpm if you want and still see gains. They are more expensive though.

I always consider port matching the intake and heads along with the exhaust too. This should yield good gains even if the port matching is what I call "poor-mans" porting. Don't worry about the polishing part, just open up the intake, exhaust, and heads to match the largest gasket openings you can get. Obviously, there is more to it than that, but you get the idea. I have always thought of port matching as "free" power so long as you have hours to spend with a good compressor, die grinding tools, safety glasses, and hearing protection.

To be quite frank about it...If I was not going to build the motor to go past 5500 rpm, I would save my money. The gains of throwing a couple hundred dollars worth of parts at it will not be a noticeable power increase. You will get a bit of a weight savings by going to aluminum and not much else. Now, if your intake needs to be replaced, by all means, go for the $150 edelbrock. There is nothing wrong with that!

A noticeable increase in HP, say 50 to 100 hp, will require higher performance parts including the intake and headers. Port-matching should not be ignored. Bumping compression to require 91 octane would be necessary to hit the 100 hp added mark. These opinions are assuming that the heads you have are middle of the road stock heads and not some small valved econo versions. Throw a street/strip cam in and your starting to get pulled back in the seat, given you have the traction available. I digress...into that rabbit hole!

Back to your real concern...bottom line is...if you are just replacing the intake and not adding a few more of the things I rambled about earlier, almost any name brand - affordable intake whether it's aluminum or iron will work just fine. You might even be able to save yourself some money if you took your original to the shop and had them hot-tank it and then shot it with some engine enamel.