A cavet on my computer being faster...except for video editing. We just ran a head to head test using Vegas Video, and the pentium 4 won hands down. But since I don't render video on my machine, and i'm more of a multi-tasking fool, it works for me.
No, my backups are all in the same building, and you are right, fire and theft could be issues, although I live in a cinder block home, so fire isn't as much as a possiblity as it would otherwise be, we thankfully have no hurricanes or tornadoes either here. One of the reasons I love Nevada.
