Just to clarify -- this is the tutorial I followed:

http://endofweb.co.uk/2010/10/ubuntu-vps-nginx-mysql-php-fpm-phpmyadmin-wordpress/

In my vhost file I had to add client_max_body_size 60M, and in nginx.conf I configured gzip but otherwise everything's about the same setup. I'm on nginx 0.8.54.