since you plan to mine with a CPU, take into consideration you electricity cost. GPUs and ASICs will be better than a CPU but then they are more expensive. But the good thing is there are newer altcoins, like the one i'm using is Wienchain, and new altcoin coins can work on a GPU or CPU. That's less costly.
I've been using Wienchain and these have several mining pools that you can try out with a CPU
US Pool:
https://us-pool.wienchain.comEU Pool:
https://eu-pool.wienchain.comCN Pool:
https://cn-pool.wienchain.comSEA Pool:
https://sea-pool.wienchain.com