The X5675 is my favorite CPU from that generation. It was the fastest/had the most cores you could get without going to a hotter/more power hungry model. I still have a dual cpu machine here that has two of them installed.
I don't mind SATA cables too much. They were such a big improvement on IDE :). I think it will be quite a while before SATA goes away though. Solid state drives still aren't really all that economical for storing/backing up large amounts of data (though I suppose this type of thing could go all external...USB or whatever). Just backing up all your videos and photos from your cell phone can take up gobs of space.