Testing:
For testing purposes, the Thecus N4100PRO and N3200 were both configured using three drives in a RAID 5 array. While the N4100PRO can hold four drives, the transfer rates were tested with three for an apples to apples comparison. When it comes to NAS devices, the drive speeds aren't going to be the bottleneck, and whether you have three or four drives in a RAID 5 array, you might be lucky to exceed 30MB/s. With that said, my own opinion is that there is no reason for anyone to use the RAID 0 capabilities of such an enclosure. You will not see a speed boost, and if you don't want redundancy just go with a JBOD configuration.
Data transfer speeds were tested in four phases; small file write, small file read, large file write, and large file read. The "small file" test consisted of three folders totaling 9.5GB in disk space, made up of a mix of txt, pdf, dwg, doc, xls, mp3, html, jpg, and gif files. The "large file" test consisted of one DVD ISO image totaling 4.3GB in disk space. A stopwatch was used to time the duration of each transfer with files copied and pasted to a folder shared on the Thecus devices, and for good measure both the host computer and the N3200 were rebooted between tests. The chart below details the results.
The extra processing power of the N4100PRO must make a difference, as the transfer rates were considerably better than the N3200. It may not look like much, but the few added MB/s can make a big difference with large transfers and frequent backups. The results didn't quite get to the 35MB/s mentioned in the list of features and specifications, but they were better than I anticipated.
The next chart takes a look at the idle and active AC power consumption measured by a Seasonic Power Angel. The idle condition was established by letting the Thecus devices sit with no transfers. The active condition was established by rebuilding a RAID 5 array (which seemed to take forever).
What we see is that with three disks, the N4100PRO isn't quite as energy efficient as the N3200. It does have more under the hood, and gets the job done quicker, so a few Watts is a fair trade off to me. Adding the fourth drive to the N4100PRO bumps the power consumption up another 9-12 Watts. Comparing this to a full computer / server, the power demands are quite reasonable with the N4100PRO. Keep in mind that it will not only manage your storage, but can also handle other things a computer might be required for, like a printer, webcam, and iTunes.
The N3200 has a sleep mode that drops power consumption down to about 16W, and that seems to be a feature the N4100PRO could really benefit from.
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