nginx.conf

worker_processes auto;
#or should be equal to the CPU core, you can use `grep processor /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l` to find; auto does it implicitly.

worker_connections 1024;
# default is 768; find optimum value for your server by `ulimit -n`

access_log off;
# to boost I/O on HDD we can disable access logs
# this prevent nginx from logging every action in a log file named `access.log`.

keepalive_timeout 15;
# default is 65;
# server will close connection after this time (in seconds)

gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 2;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_min_length 256;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
# reduces the data that needs to be sent over the network