Well, I do love my 530i, however, I feel there should be some things I can do to increase my engine performance. I want to start small, and work my way up. Do you guys have any advice on where to begin on this long journey?

Sprint booster!

If you really want to make your ride faster, then supercharge it. All the other mods like exhaust, CAI or ecu software will help a bit but you will barely notice, like in most NA engines. At the end the combo full exhaust + cai + software, will be almost the same price than a SC kit.

Where do I find the perfect Supercharger, and who can install it? Just to add, how many horses does it add? If I am 0-60 in 5.8 seconds, how much will it shave off that? Torque difference? etc.

What the hell is ECU software? heh. I'm very new at this guys.

any quest to make a car faster should begin with its most important component: the driver.

Thats great advice, except its not a manual transmission, and my driving consists of "Gas pedal meets floor".

Floor mats

Maybe I'm on the wrong forum.

ESS Supercharger:
Part number: 115-31
Boost pressure: 8 PSI
Horsepower: 340 DIN (Stock 225SAE/231DIN)
Torque: 420 NM (Stock 300)
0 - 60: Man : 5.5 sec, Aut : 6.4 sec
Installation time : 8-10 hours

$7,995.00 for the part and probably $1,500-$2,000 labor for install.

Wow...

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do with a 04 530i to increase hp from the stock 225 hp. It might have behooved you to have picked up a 06 530i with 255 hp. The difference between the 04 and 06 530i would have been less than $3K.

At that price its cheaper to sell the car and upgrade to a 545!