upgrades/things to do to make my mac more zippy?

I got a 2012 mbp 13", i5 2.5 ghz, 4gb ram, intel 4k. 5400 rpm drive

I already disabled all animations, and overall it feels pretty sluggish for a thousand dollar laptop lol, and I don't use any pirated software or do stupid things that would slow it down (I am pretty techy but kinda stuck atm)

So was thinking of either upgrading to 8gb ram (would that be worth it? I feel like for not being a gaming laptop 4gb should be more than enough right?

Otherwise, would it be better to upgrade to a 7200rpm drive? I know lotta push SSD, but I have 2 bad experiences with OCZ and Samsung and I feel better just sticking to a mechanical drive.

which would give me the most bang for buck? upgrading to 8gb ram or getting 7200rpm drive?

also can someone tell me exactly the maximum amount of ram my mac can recognize? No one can seem to give me a direct answer, not even googling.

Here are the Mac specs: MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.5 13" Mid-2012 Specs (Mid-2012 13", MD101LL/A, MacBookPro9,2, A1278, 2554*) @ EveryMac.com

You can upgrade to a maximum 16GB, but the laptop from the get go should be pretty fast to begin with unless you are making very high demands by using CPU/GPU intensive applications that are rendering video/audio or something else.

If it's a regular use laptop, what are you comparing it to claim that it's sluggish?