We have a 4.5 year old Ciphergen PBS2 and use it daily. Depending on the types of results you want or expect, it is either a fairly decent MS or not up to the task. We have used it for profiling KO animals with amazing results, following treatment of animals with various drugs with good results. We have also done C-terminal sequencing with carboxypeptidase Y. Others in our group have used it to map fragments from limited tryptic digests for structural analysis. Do you have specific questions or needs?
As for their ms not being very good.... that is a matter of opinion. What people either forget or don't know is that after the chips are washed and put in the machine, the process is strictly maldi-tof ms. Is it high end? no, is it reproducible, yes. Can other machines use the chips, yes,,, but from the very limited experience i have had on a maldi-tof/tof using the ciphergen chips, i would say that that is not the best arrangement as the chip surface is very rough compared to the maldi-tof/tof's own target.