Don't forget that typical notebook PC hard drives are on the slower side. 4200 rpm is normal for the economy and power-efficient models, and 5400 rpm for the mainline and 'desktop replacement' units. 7200 rpm drives, which have equivalent speeds to the normal desktop HDDs, are only found in ultra high-end models (or sold and installed as replacements/upgrades) and are usually much more expensive.
This means that programs and files will take longer to load and save. And if Windows starts using virtual memory (
page file) that will also have an impact since the page file is on your hard drive. And virtual memory is much slower than main memory (RAM). Having more RAM can improve performance and minimize the usage of virtual memory but it still won't do anything for save and load times.