> why wouldn't they update to the latest processor? I'm betting the latest and greatest.

So far Apple has skipped the high performance single socket options. Mac Pro has been Xeon only – dual socket but very price. iMac has been low and mid-range consumer processors. For AE 64-bit, you really want 4 to 8 GB of RAM per thread, many people end up with Mac Pros with more threads then RAM i.e. spending dollars on CPU power that unless you do a lot of 3D go to waste. So Apple offer a low-end CPU solution, a high-end solution (for a very premium price) – but a mid-range high power solution – generally the best buy for most AE users.

If you buy a 12 or 16 core system for AE, you’ve got to have a ton of RAM for it to make economic sense. And Xeon RAM is usually more expensive to boot.

Plus, Sandy Bridge-E are overclock friendly (of course, if Apple ever released a overclock friendly motherboard, I would die of heart attack) but even without that, a Sandy-Bridge E is faster than Ivy Bridge for AE. And Ivy Bridge E or whatever they call it will be coming down the pipe.