As with previous QNAP products, the TS-412 Turbo NAS was extremely easy to outfit with hardware and configure. The QNAP Finder software is efficient, the Quick Configuration Wizard makes setup a breeze, and the all-important QNAP v3 User Interface is now highly refined and very powerful. In fact, we feel it rivals the Synology DiskStation Manager as the best consumer-level NAS software. For those seeking an affordable 4-bay NAS device, the TS-412 Turbo NAS is hard to fault. Thecus’ N3200XXX is one of the closest contenders in a similar price range, but it only supports three drives. Even if that doesn’t matter to you, the N3200XXX was faster throughout our file transfer tests, we feel the TS-412’s superior software, power consumption and build quality make it the wiser choice. If you’re just an average home user who isn’t looking to max out a Gigabit Ethernet connection, we believe you’ll be well served by the QNAP TS-412 Turbo. Unfortunately, folks who demand desktop-like performance will have to look well beyond the TS-412’s $460 price tag. Products such as the TS-439 Pro II+ or Synology’s Disk Station DS411+ are more suitable, but at $700+, you can expect to pay dearly for the speed increase.
