An early stab at a few noticed things…
The laptop specs look really nice, but you left out installed RAM.
If your system isn’t challenged relative to what you want to do (or at at least for a couple weeks or so), ie >4GB RAM without trying to do something <really> intensive like running multiple virtual machines, heavy encoding, etc. I’d recommend you re-install with the KDE Desktop instead of XFCE at first. KDE is very heavy on what many people consider extras, but they might be helpful at first. If KDE isn’t what you you want long-term, you can either re-install or install the XFCE Desktop side by side with KDE to ease your transition to the other Desktop when you feel like it.
With KDE installed, you’ll find it easier to setup displays like HDMI. I use LXDE instead of XFCE as my lightweight Desktop and they have a lot of similarities, so I’m very aware of the extra effort to get things like HDMI (and other displays) connected if you’re new.
The KDE menu is much better than the lightweight Desktops, which may or may not create menu items to easily find and launch apps. Yes, if you’re running something like XFCE it’s more important than usual to know how apps are installed, how to find them (yeah!) and how to launch. All intermediate stuff a beginner has to learn. So, install and run KDE which is more complete supporting apps until you get to the next level.
Audio settings like about 90% of everything system-related can be found in YAST. YAST is the unique openSUSE tool that can do most of what you’re asking about, so spend some time exploring this tool. Although there are command line alternatives that might allow you to find and do things more efficiently you don’t have to know those special commands to do what you want <now> as a beginner by using YAST to do things like configure your audio and other I/O devices, install/uninstall/find software, configure your system. You’ll find YAST can do practically everything the Windows Control Panel does plus a lot more.
And, another plug for KDE… It has its own applets and routines that enhance what is “linux basic” so may solve your audio problems more easily like your video output issues.
Drivers today on a modern Linux system are largely distributed as part of the mainline kernel so unless you run into a somewhat unusual problem you won’t have to deal with driver and firmware issues (whew! - It’s still a headache but less often than 3 yrs ago).
Recommendation:
As hcvv suggests,
Post specific problems and/or search the Forum specific to your issue.
So, for instance for your audio problems read the stickies in the Multimedia forum which contain some basic steps for common problems, then search for anything specific to the audio hardware (yes, in Linux you need to get the specific technical hardware and versions, not common names) and then if you still have problems,
Post with details. Describing what you tried. Describing your results.
HTH,
TSU