Im starting to use AE for the first time, but Im running out of resources a bit too often.
^
As for resources for autocrafting... I guess the key phrase is "dig a lot". You need a bunch of iron and a bunch of quartz, and enough Glowstone to make you cry.
Nether Quartz (dust) will often substitute for Certus Quartz in a number of recipes, so a decent trip through the nether will yield you some useful resources, in addition to the glowstone.
If you want to try something different, work towards an MFR laser setup, which will eventually see you swimming in glowstone and quartz. When you're done, you can use/downsize the power source to run your soon-to-be-growing AE network