You aren't losing power at all with either as in per-block power loss or anything. The enderIO ones give you more control but have a slightly larger game performance overhead.
The COFH marketing machine tends to be very successful.
What I'm wondering is if the conduits were so amazingly optimized and stable in 1.6, why does it take so long to update to 1.7?
As I remember it a large number of server admins complained a lot about the over heads of itemducts, I never found them a huge problem, more a case of some players that used them not having them setup well & allowing a build up of items in ducts that could end up 40-60k of items bouncing around ducts, some players just cant seem to add a trash can to stop this type of thing happening, or just can loose a single block of that awesome cobble!!.
Ender IO does not suffer from this issue, if there is no valid place for items to land there just not sent, logic wins
unless you are standing two blocks below the position of the inventory block, which causes some problems in early game skyblock with a 1 block thick platform and no jetpack
Surely you can craft a piston and lever if you can build machines?
Exactly. In 1.6 I was amongst those going insane over my TE conduits have glitches. I finally switched to EIO and I was so pleased with the space savings alone. I dont miss the TE stuff in 1.7. I'll still use TE machines but I'd have to see something amazing in the duct mod to make me go back to TE for piping or wiring .Enderio all the way, I just love being able to run power, liquid fuel and a redstone signal through one block. Thermal Expansion stuff just does not have that attraction to me.