It's gonna be funny to see if they'll go in the lower end with the 4 core still, and even more so if they use the 1620 CPU, which is rated slower (clock speed wise , maybe not performance due to IPC improvements), but it's still a dialed down version when you look at the numbers. I'm pretty sure they will though, the price point matches the old one.
I'd go for the 1660 myself, looks good enough.
Still, they might use the 2600 series again for even the 8 core option, maybe they get to 14 cores this time around.
What really bothers me here is being stuck on the legacy C610 PCH.
I wonder though if they will feel pressure to show improvements at the bottom end though.
The E5-1650 6 core went from 3.5 to 3.6 GHz
The E5-1660 8 core went from 3.0 to 3.2
If sticking with a 12 core 2600, they could go from 2.7 to 3.0, but it seems that 160W beast might not fit in the power envelope. So it could be maybe a 2.6 14-core, or a 2.3 18-core, or both?
Either way, all of those options appear to be a non-IPC improvement dependent upgrade. So is Apple going to be happy still offering a 4-core at 3.7, when they could offer a 6-core base, the bottom 8-core as the upgrade model, then BTOs with the top end 8 core, and at least one 2600 option as well?
I doubt it, but one can hope. Spending $3000 on a 4-core workstation, no matter what else is inside it, just seems silly in 2016...