Um... I don't really prefer either. To be honest I use all three I use MJ I use EU and I use BT... why because they all do stuff I like doing.
Given the choice it tends to be BT then MJ and EU for my path of how to do stuff. But in the end I do end up needing something for all of these mods. TE is nice for ease of use but IC2 has many advanced systems that allow for some really nice mid to end game ore processing with all sorts of useful tools and side products.
You COULD run everything with IC2 as your main power source if you opt to not use BT. Since there the Electric engine is just so well its awesome as far as engines go. You get your MJ right at the device you need form your EU grid. Try and do that with TE using MJ and you have to do some odd system and still ends up having to create an EU power grid to feed any IC2 machines.
I tend to start with TE, then once I hit the midgame create an EU infrastructure and migrate many things over to GregTech. However, TE is never truly retired, just relegated to those tasks where it excels instead of being the blanket solution to everything. I also use blutricity as well - whereas the EU network tends to do most of the heavy automated processing, and the MJ network does automated mining and farming as well as ancillary processing, the blutricity network powers the sorters and on-demand smelting of small item numbers next to my crafting tables.
One of these days I need to throw Thaumcraft into the mix as well...
One of these days I need to throw Thaumcraft into the mix as well...
Thaumcraft golems are pretty good for automatic famingYou need to... I will tell you them golems are handy in many places for item handling. They work well in places were you need some fine control but not want to or cant run pipes all over the place.
They also are my main go to for farming I actually like them over or in addition to the forestry farms.
Although most of the tools and jetpack and armor ETC is provided by MPS.@ DRH1469: ore output is honestly not my concern, I'm usually oversaturated with resources. But for those cases where I do want triple ingots, I prefer GregTech's guaranteed bonus over TE's 5%-10% chance any dayAlso, TE can't give you UU-matter, tesla coils, jetpacks, great armor and weapons and tools, so even if you don't run GregTech you are severely missing out by limiting yourself to only one mod when you could have both.