However I did find a way to use my old texture pack with it.
Really? How? Was it a 16x16 pack?
And yeah, I tend to be rather conservative with my modding. I would never have attempted to make all that stuff work together in Morrowind or Fallout 3, but at least the server one doesn't use every damn thing in it. I heartily dislike mod compilations.
Hmm, does optifine work with Technic? That might provide 32x32 support without the need for MCpatcher.