cold air get colder air since the intake tube is farther away from your engine which your engine loves during the summer. druring the winter a short ram is perfect considering ambient air temperature is colder. problem with cold air its that if you hit a big puddle you increase your risk of sucking in water and getting hydro lock. at first i bought a 50 $ ebay cold air kit so i could install and see and hear the difference. i then upgraded to brand name aem kit. 200$ + it all depends on your budget my friend did not notice a difference in ebay/aem intake configurations. just better placement of the air filter .
It is definitely personal preference. Generally a CAI is going to make a little more power than a SRI, at the cost of being slightly harder to install and clean the filter.
I have the MS CAI and sucking in water isn't really as big of a concern as people make it out to be. You'd have to drive through water probably 8-12" deep to suck in water. I've never had a situation where I've encountered water that deep.