Id say if your limiting yourself between the edelbrocks and the x heads, you really need to examine how tight your budget is. Its what, $1200 for new eddys then maybe another $200 to have them checked out. So given they dont need to be fixed, your $1400 in them. You can be less that $700 into a set of irons and you will can get into the 12's fairly easy.
No, I dont think that iron heads are as good as Eddy's, and if he goes with something other than an x-head you can save some more coin on the castings. But when the budget gets really tight, $200 to $400 here or there can become pretty significant and if its the difference between going racing and sitting at home waiting for the extra cash to buy the eddy's, Id rather go racing.