So far I like Reaper 64 bit. With a pricetag under $100 for people earning less than 20K with it, and a fully functional demo, it does every thing I'd like. (Well it isn't a wave editor, but Audacity is fine for pencil or copy/paste repairs.)
VST plugins included are nice. I've only used it with 2 track, but a buddy is running 16+ channels with his laptop and loves it.
While no eq in the mixer UI is true, there are fx channels for each track. Plenty of eq plugin options.