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1500 points could give you 100 marines.
Take at least 120pts away for HQ.
92 marines.
Fast attack ~150pts of whatever.
82 marines.
Couple cheap heavies ~210pts
68 marines.
Some elite ~210pts
54 marines.
So some 5 full ten man squads could be done not including their rides and any extra fancy stuff you may want to add.

People like their extra toys and that is what takes away from the marine horde. If you play bare bones 1500 points is the way to go. 1850 gives you all the options you really want without having to hunt around overly much and the Ork players just make bigger boy blobs.

I see the need to be aware of higher model count: more models = more to kill every turn = happy players raking off dead models.