I would go with one of the Yamaha MG series mixers. I've got the MG 12/4 and love it to bits! It's extremely versatile, and the pre's sound nice as well. Good price too! I would stay away from mixers with built in effects. You can do so much better, and get more for your money, with an external effects processor (if you find that you really need one, but you shouldn't). Plus, the lack of built in effects clears up the signal chain a bit more within the mixer. Behringer works pretty good for the money though. I only resort to them as a last option though. I do, however, love the DEQ2496! It is a really good EQ (graphic, parametric, and dynamic), and also has a usable compressor/expander/limiter, a spectrum analyzer, and a feedback destroyer (never used that though).