Which MacBook did you get? Air, Pro, Retina?
Here's my take. First off, I used to sell Apple products for major resellers that sold into the Corporate and Government sector. The only way I would even CONSIDER third party SSD, RAM, and hard drives is AFTER the warranty (GET APPLECARE, IT'S WORTH THE MONEY), and you have a certain degree of competency on how to pull these things apart.
If the memory slots are USER accessible, which they are on SOME models, then it makes it easy to add/remove memory. The problem is this. Apple has their own memory, which is designed and FULLY tested to work in THEIR products and comes with a warranty and is covered in AppleCare warranties. If you add third party anything inside the computer, they are NOT always designed and FULLY tested to work 100% with the same level of realiabiilty as Apple branded components. It's just fact, if someone tells you anything differently, they either don't know, or they are lying.
If you want to upgrade RAM, then get ONLY Apple brand RAM (yeah, it's a little more and it's usually better to buy at the time you bought the computer), but it's DEFINITELY higher quality RAM. Their SSD memory is also designed and tested to meet Apple specs. Memory is a funny thing. Some memory can pass 100 memory read/write passes without errors, but not 1000. So, a lot of third party memory might be tested to the same levels. Plus, they might be using different speeds that might not be as reliable, using different chips which might draw more power, etc., etc. Most people just see the GB rating, maybe the speed rating, and the price and that's it. They don't look at MTBF ratings, power ratings, etc. If you bought a Porsche, would you put a VW or a third party part in it to save a few bucks? Most wouldn't. They want the Porche guarantee that it's going to work and work reliabily.
Hard drives? There is such a thing as zero defect platters, MTBF ratings, and sometimes there might some certain thing that Apple wants to make them work reliably. I've NEVER had ANY problems with Apple branded RAM or Hard drives. EVER. I've had problems with third party memory. Any problems i've had were within the warranty period and were fixed IMMEDIATELY. Apple has great turn around depending on availability of the component. I won't use third party memory, EVER. I've been burned too many times, even with what are SUPPOSED to be good suppliers.
If you can upgrade the RAM, make sure you get Apple brand RAM and have someone qualified to do it, unless it's easy to do. But laptops are typically not that easy to do because people w/o knowing can easily seat the memory wrong, not use static procedures and in the process people have been known to do more damage which is more costly.
Apple has been starting to do soldered on the motherboard memory and I'm sure there are plenty of reasons PRO and CON with regards to this. The unfortunate thing is it forces people to maybe buy the maximum, which may be more costly, but it will certainly increase the resale value and a lot of people end up using it anyway, so that isn't such a bad thing, plus you know that it's tested to actually work and believe it or not that memory is VERY reliable if the laptop isn't abused.
It's really hard and costly to support hardware and anytime you allow the user to dig inside these things, something might happen and guess what? Unless we have the qualifications other than having tools and a little knowledge, the average user isn't an Certified AppleCare break/fix technician using the various tools Apple uses and we can do more damage as a result. Having some tools and a computer does not mean we are experts. But some of try to act like one or FEEL like one without having the training to back us up.
Word to the wise, Buy AppleCare whenever possible, ESPECIALLY laptops since they get more abused by the nature of being carried around and knocked around and in varioius environments. and ALWAYS use Apple brand RAM, SSD, and hard drives and optical drives. It's just easier on you and you'll rest easier at night.
