Small eye glass screw driver works just as good, hell stiff paper clip in a 'U' shape and a pair of vice grips for the big plugs. Fan connectors all you need is a hobby knife.
Push the barbs in, pull the wire out. Flare the barb back out, shove it back into the plug until you hear a click, give a slight tug to make sure its seated good.
I need to do a how-to on this.... second post in close to a month about how this is done.
Here is a vid on the 24pin plug, using the paper clip trick.