Does anyone have a SOLID system running

[terabase]

I am hearing more and more rumors that the SOLID system does not work or that ABI is having a really hard time getting the installed systems running. We are currently deciding what to buy - the Illumina Genome Analyzer or the Applied SOLID system.

DOES ANYONE USE THE SOLID SYSTEM ?

[Chipper]

I am hearing more and more rumors that the SOLID system does not work or that ABI is having a really hard time getting the installed systems running. We are currently deciding what to buy - the Illumina Genome Analyzer or the Applied SOLID system.

DOES ANYONE USE THE SOLID SYSTEM ?

Yes it does work well, perhaps the rumor has to do with the fact that AB is releasing a new chemistry now for 50 bp reads. Don't know which system is in the lead for bases or tags per day or $ though. Perhaps the polonator if it is working as claimed...

[solidifier]

Yes, at Rutgers we've already run genomic fragment libraries, mate-pair libraries, and small RNA libraries. It's VERY early in data analysis but the results are looking very nice. Better depth than advertised.

[cgb]

you can get between 400 MB and > 1GB *per day* from either SOLiDs or GAIIs. Illumina base quality can be between Q30-Q40 if recalibrated properly. SOLiD 2 color base changes can be >Q30 as long as you have enough read length to get you a good alignment (in colorspace) - (so i guess you need all of the latest tweaks).

[terabase]

Thanks for the comments.
I guess the situation is changing somewhat. A few months ago Illumina was clearly the leader in short read sequencing. Meanwhile an increasing number of labs is generating data with the SOLID system and ABI seems to catch up rapidly. The Illumina sales reps are still heavily bashing the SOLID System as not working - out of obvious reasons.

[Chipper]

Thanks for the comments.
I guess the situation is changing somewhat. A few months ago Illumina was clearly the leader in short read sequencing. Meanwhile an increasing number of labs is generating data with the SOLID system and ABI seems to catch up rapidly. The Illumina sales reps are still heavily bashing the SOLID System as not working - out of obvious reasons.

Lol, have they tried it? It's not like the Illumina is without problems either. But both seems to yield similar number of aligned sequences. My impression is that the sample prep is somewhat more tricky with the SOLiD, but it should not be a big difference. Just qurious, why is no one considering the Helicos? Is it because of price, availability or lack of real data? On (web)paper it looks like the best instrument when it comes to sample handling, price per sample etc.