We are looking at adding a GC/MS system to our lab and I have been talking to the various GC/MS manufacturers. The Varian Saturn GC/MS is substantially cheaper than the GC/MS systems from other manufacturers. I am looking for opinions concerning the quality and performance of the Varian Saturn GC/MS.

We just had our new Varian Saturn 2000 GC-MS installed at our site 2 weeks ago. We got the liquid CI option and also opted for the CTC CombiPal Autosampler for Liquid and Headspace samples. We researched 5 vendors before making our decision. We found Shimadzu to be the cheapest and Agilent to be the most expensive. Varian and Thermoquest were both in the middle pricewise. So far, we have not been disappointed, but we haven't run too many samples yet. Varian offered the most bang for the buck, and the Saturn is an ion-trap, while all the others were Quadropoles-we thought we'd get better sensitivity with the trap vs. a quad.

Good Luck

Saturn is indeed one of the cheapest; one possible limitation : check that the maximum allowable carrier gas flow rate is OK for all your applications/column diameter.
Did you have a look at their software? Is it OK for you? I remember that about 2 years ago some parts of the soft were still DOS

I have used the Saturn 2000 for 4 years in trace pesticide residue analysis and flavor analysis and I am extremely pleased with it. The new software is fairly easy to work with. I have other gcms's in the lab and the saturn 2000 is by far the most sensitive and versatile, especially its ability to do ms/ms.