Hello! Coming from an education background myself, I completely feel your pain of wanting something easy to carry that doesn’t also seem to be trying too hard, lol! I would argue the best possible time to get into game design would be now with UE5 as it does a great job of mitigating some long term pain points, especially for beginners, such as lighting and optimization.
Dell has served me very well in the past, it would only get a little hot with multiple projects open (as I’m sure most computers would, in fairness) so it by all accounts should be a pretty good pick. Comparing the specs you listed to the recommended specs for UE5 found here, you should be set.
If for whatever reason the Dell doesn’t seem like a good fit I also highly recommend Lenovo. It’s pretty budget friendly and has been serving me well when I’m away from my desktop.
Cheers and happy experimenting!