Well, you didn't link to the specific model, so it's hard to tell you. Sounds like a POS Dell with a touch screen that you can't upgrade.
OK, I build all my own stuff. I can put together a nice desktop for about $700 USD. Laptops are a different animal. Expensive, fragile (don't drop it!) and don't have the capacity of a desktop. But a lappy is portable, which is why I have one. I can use WiFy for my e mail crap.
Win 8? Uhhhhh, no. Not yet. Go with 64 bit Win 7. It's hella stable and has all your drivers. Give Win 8 a "wait" for now. Let it mature.

Ryzen 7 2700K, Asus Prime X570P, 32Gb DDR4, 2x 1Tb M.2 SSD's, RTX2060 6Gb, Occulus Rift
Win 10 Pro 64bit, keyboard/ mouse/ wheel/ pedals/ baseball bat
Security Coordinator on the Battleship Iowa