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I have a 500pt Dark Angels army that I put together for Third Edition. I know that Dark Angels and Space Marines are independent codices now, but is it better to just use the vanilla codex?

I believe so.

Unless you want to use Deathwing or Ravenwing as troops vanilla is far superior.

If you are not playing Deathwing or Ravenwing (and at 500 pts I doubt that) just use the Nila codex. It is a much better codex.

(To put into Perspective, a Captain with BP and Power Sword and Two tac Squads (Flamer/ML) will cost a Dark Angels Player 475 Points, and a Nilla Player 455 Points with no real difference. Not much, but it adds up real fast)