Which automation mod is best for an IC2 user?

BuildCraft was the first mod I ever managed to install and played with solely for the longest time, so I'm a little bias ..

Quote from T10a

Hi folks, today I was wandering around the Land of Minecraft when I pondered, is it really worth having Redpower installed alongside IC2? Could Buildcraft do better? You can vote, this could possibly be helpful somewhere

Both. Redpower is better at doing some things, Buildcraft at others.
Like I can't play without buildcraft anymore, why? two reasons:
1: Forestry
2: Logistics pipes. Automatic crafting of almost *anything* on demand. (it'll even do solar panels from raw sand and coal if you've taught it how to macerate and smelt them in the machines)

Redpower without a doubt, no magic stuff, just plain mechanics which you can utilize.
Sure BC is a bit easier to work with, but, the pipes are dumb, don't have covers.
And so on and so forth.

Besides, the stability problems are also an issue.

(Immibis mods is a must have for auto-crafting.)
(And, with a Forth program linked to numerous retrievers, it is also possible to create a library of stuff. Experimenting with this one.)

Quote from T10a

Which fourth mod?

Forth is the programming language of repower computers.

Defiantly red power, the pipes are smarter, easier to automate (In my opinion)
And ooooh those logic gates <333

I voted Redpower, but my real recommendation would be a combination of Logistic Pipes and local Redpower systems when dropping items on the floor just isn't an option. They work together quite reasonably.

Obviously, this only applies for single-player -- Logistic Pipes don't exist for SMP (yet).

Just a matter of time for the CnC like they call it in the redpower forums for automated crafting.

And ever since the pump machine was added to RP i started liking it even more. If only forestry would have compatibilty with RP liquid tubes... (Sadly we have to wait for Eloraam to make the first move)

Redpower definitely, you don't really need generators to run simple stuff and immibis mods made a redpower compatible auto-crafting table, as a side note I love how out of 17 voters, none voted for technic

I would actually prefer both. But if I had to pick and choose, Redpower has a smarter tube system. But Buildcraft with logistical piping is better. Redpower frames are also wanted....

Quote from NuclearStudent

I would actually prefer both. But if I had to pick and choose, Redpower has a smarter tube system. But Buildcraft with logistical piping is better. Redpower frames are also wanted....

Yeah, frames, tubes and control are the reasons I keep redpower around.
A frame quarry may be difficult to build but they're fast as hell. They just about require the ender chest mod though as getting it off the quarry head would be very painful without.
Before it got destroyed* I had the quarry dumping to the chest which was the same color as the input to the logistics pipe sorting system and it's stack grabber module. (forget it's name at the moment)
I think the head was 25 block breakers long. Didn't take long to get down to bedrock. Strip-mined a pretty large area in the 4-5 hours it was operating.

*yeah.. thanks forestry. the 1.4.8.0 version majorly screwed the world up when I installed it. Frame quarry half vanished. Would have been rebuildable except it took out both control and the drive section...

I'm using both, according to what works better, or what system I want to do in given moment. Both systems are really fun to build with and are capable of almost anything (except lack of autocrafting in RP). BC pipes are IMO simpler, but also harder to build complicated things. Also I think BC mechanics is better integrated with Minecraft, not in technical sense, but more in "Minecrafty" feeling. BC3 gates are really great thing. They can make BC systems really smart and compact (using also RP2 gates ;)).

On the other hand, I won't even consider starting game without redpower. I could live without tube system, but compact circuits, well thought computer (in comparison to CC, "turtle.left()" is just silly) are irreplacable. Deployers, blockbreakers etc. are great elements of really complicated systems (specially with frames).

Game changing thing for buildcraft is actually BC addon, Logistic Pipes. This is a mod, which makes crafting things from different mods practically possible, also making inventory managing almost a non issue (with great forestry backpacks). Before I was using them, in one world I had about 200 project tables ;). Though for automated systems I prefer to only provide input/output from them using LP (for example input - Forestry humus, output UU-matter), supply constantly working machines with them is just too easy. It also causes lots of console output and sometimes lag. Currently they are quite fragile, but too awesome to refrain from using them after one or two world resets. I became a person who makes world backup after loosing 90 % of workshop and 6 out of 7 external systems, about 20 chunks got reverted to original state, but it is not necessarily LP fault.

In summary, both of these mods are great, work well together with IC2 and for me are essential.