Yeah there’s different ways of doing it but I agree that if you’re new to this, keeping them separate is going to be the way to go.
I have a sysadmin / DevOps background so I’m more at home with VMs/container. My setup is probablt way over-engineered for what I’m using it for 😁.
For the laptop I got this model and replaced the SSD with a 2TB one: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Thinkpad-Display-i7-6600U-802-11AC/dp/B08WT481PQ